Wangara was the Arabic designation for Mande-speaking traders operating across the western Sudan. In different regions, Soninke merchants were known as Marka among the Bambara of the middle Niger and as Dyula among the Malinke of the upper Niger. The term therefore identified a broad commercial population whose activities crossed political and linguistic boundaries.

These traders connected gold-producing areas with the termini of Saharan caravans. They operated among Malinke and Bambara communities, adopted local languages, and established relationships with foreign merchants from the Maghrib. Through these contacts, many became Muslims and helped carry Islamic practices alongside merchandise across the Sahel and savannah.

Until the middle of the fourteenth century, Wangara commerce largely operated within Mali’s dominions. During the later fourteenth century, traders moved beyond the empire’s political frontiers, reaching the Akan goldfields, the land of kola in Worodugu, peoples of the western Atlantic coast, and Hausaland. Their mobility made them agents of both long-distance exchange and cultural transmission.