The mountain country round Mount Nimba, Sanniquellie, Danané, Man and Biankouma.
The Dan, Mano and Toura speak southern Mande languages, a branch that parted from the other Mande tongues very long ago, so they have likely been at the forest edge for a long time; in later times their villages were ruled through masked societies, elders and war leaders. Nothing is recorded of them for 1200.
Who holds it
- Title
- Village elders, war leaders and the masks
- Since
- Not known
- Confidence
- low
Customs
Mask societies (the masks as judges, peacemakers and messengers); villages of patrilineal lineages; rice farming; smiths.
Assemblies
Elders and masks.
Where the sources disagree
Evidence: Linguistic classification and later ethnography.
On the map: Drawn from the later Mano and Dan lands.
Sources and studies
- Dan (peuple) (French Wikipedia, citing H. Zemp, E. Fischer and H. Himmelheber)
- 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.