The forest and forest-savanna country of central Liberia and of Guinea round Nzérékoré.
The Kpelle speak a south-western Mande language, kin to Loma and Mende. One account cited on Wikipedia brings them down from the savanna in the sixteenth century with the break-up of Mali; Person and others treat the south-western Mande as long settled at the forest edge, with later southward drift. On 1 January 1200 their ancestors probably held the northern part of this ground; how far south they reached is not known.
Who holds it
- Title
- Town and clan chiefs and the Poro and Sande elders, as in later times
- Since
- Not known
- Confidence
- low
Customs
Poro and Sande societies; town chiefs; wealth counted in people (Bledsoe); rice farming.
Assemblies
Elders and the Poro.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Later ethnography and conflicting migration accounts.
On the map: Drawn from the later Kpelle lands.
Sources and studies
- Kpelle people (Wikipedia, citing A. Fiske and R. M. Fulton 1972)
- Y. Person, Ethnic movements and acculturation in Upper Guinea since the fifteenth century, African Historical Studies 4 (1971); from the researcher's knowledge
- Researcher's general knowledge of the ethnography and linguistic geography of Ghana and Togo (present-day distributions), used only to place peoples whose 1200 seats are not recorded
Last revised 4 November 2026. Published 4 November 2026. Suggest a correction on the OMNIA Discord.