 According to Dolores Richter, the caste system found among Senufo people features "hierarchical ranking including despised lower castes, occupational specificity, ritual complementarity, endogamy, hereditary membership, residential isolation and the political superiority of farmers over artisan castes".The Soninke people are a West African ethnic group found in eastern Senegal and its capital Dakar, northwestern Mali and southern Mauritania.Predominantly Muslims, the Soninke were one of the early ethnic groups from Sub-Saharan West Africa to convert to Islam about the 10th century.