Among the Malinke, the extended family, or lu, formed the basic social unit. Its head, the fa, administered communal property and regulated relations among family members with the advice of other elders. He also represented the connection with the ancestors and fulfilled priestly functions, combining social authority with ritual responsibility.

The village was headed by a dugu-tigi, the fa of the lu believed to descend from the earliest occupants of the settlement. As chief and priest, the dugu-tigi was associated with the spirits of the land and governed village affairs with the assistance of a council of tun-gigi, the headmen of leading families. Initiation associations, sometimes described as secret societies, further strengthened village unity beyond the autonomy of individual families.

Malinke villages were grouped into kafus. A kafù could emerge through the fission of an original village, with its dugu-tigi becoming the new territorial chief, or through the protection imposed by a powerful leader on neighboring villages. At this level, the mansa exercised political authority, and the kafù expressed the precedence of territorial organization over the kinship group.