Mangoes, bananas, oranges, papayas, and cashews add balance to their diet. The Manya live in large, walled-in villages. Within the villages, extended families live in separate, fenced-in compounds. The compounds are composed of clans who share a common surname. Villages are ruled by a chief, but the oldest representative from the descendants of the first settlers is counted as nobility and also has authority.
Men commonly have more than one wife.
There is a clear social order among the Manya that ranges from nobility to commoners. The lowest and most despised class consists of craftsmen and former slaves. Their society is patriarchal , or male-dominated. The line of descent is traced through the fathers, and inheritances are passed down through the males. An age-set is a three or four year interval, with every child born in those years belonging to the same set.