“Mandinka” was released as a single on 1 December 1987. 
In an April 1988 interview with The Tech, Sinéad O’Connor said: “Mandinkas are an African tribe. They’re mentioned in a book called Roots by Alex Haley, which is what the song is about. In order to understand it you must read the book.”
In fact, the Mandinka or Malinke are a West African ethnic group primarily found in southern Mali, the Gambia and eastern Guinea. Numbering about 11 million, they are the largest subgroup of the Mandé peoples and one of the largest ethnic-linguistic groups in Africa.
Even if the Mandinka are the inspiration behind this track, they aren’t its subject per se. Being victims of the Transatlantic Slave Trade—as made known through Roots—they had to put personal pride aside, if you will, in the name of surviving that harrowing ordeal.
So when Sinéad asserts that “she knows Mandinka,” what she appears to be referring to, in context, is likening said people to someone who has transcended “shame” and “pain.” We can reasonably assume that she identifies with the suffering of those people.
Or at least, that’s one way of trying to make sense out of the lyrics. It’s obvious that the songstress didn’t go out of her way to make her song easily understandable. The listener is forced to do some theorizing on his or her own part.
(1966-2023)
I’m dancing the seven veils
Want you to pick up my scarf
See how the black moon fades
Soon I can give you my heart
I don’t know no shame
I feel no pain
I can’t see the flame
But I do know Man-din-ka
I do know Man-din-ka
I do know Man-din-ka
I do
They’re throwing it all this way
Dragging it back to the start
And they say, “See how the glass is raised?”
I have refused to take part
I told them “drink something new”
Please let me pull something through
I don’t know no shame
I feel no pain
I can’t
I don’t know no shame
I feel no pain
I can’t see the flame
But I do know Man-din-ka
I do know Man-din-ka
I do know Man-din-ka
I do
I do
I do
I say I do
Soon I can give you my heart
I swear I do
Soon I can give you my heart
I do
Mandinka
Soon I can give you my heart
Soon I can give you my heart
