250 word summary

“What saved him?

His hands.

When you are popular you must have an open hand.

It is a man’s generosity that will save him.

Nothing saved Sunjata but his hands” (lines 1095-99).

 Author

 Time/Date of Composition

Contextual Information

 Form

Major Themes

Preview

  Sunjata is the only reading (so far) with a still active

oral tradition. The version we’re reading is a written rendering of an oral performance by Tassey Condé in the 1990s

 Condé was a jeliw who lived in Fadama in Northeastern Guinea (Norton)

However… There is no single author, as Sunjata has been passed down and told by many different bards

Author



Time/Date of Composition

 Probably composed between late 1200s CE and early 1300s CE

 Evidence of Sunjata’s life is corroborated through the writings of Ibn Battuta, a Berber/Moroccan explorer/traveler in the 1350s BCE

(Book cover of The Travels of Ibn Battuta)

 Mande People.

Mande (also called Mandinka) people live in northeastern Guinea, southern Mali, and parts of sub-Saharan West Africa (Norton)

Mande people are comprised of a variety of independent groups “dominated by a hereditary nobility”  the Kangaba group has had an uninterrupted dynasty lasting 13 centuries (“Mandinga” from Encyclopedia Brittanica)

Contextual Information

 Mande people founded the Mali Empire, one of the

most powerful empires in Western Africa:

“The Empire was founded in 1235 CE by the legendary King Sundiata [ii], and lasted until the early 1600s CE [iii]. The Empire’s most famous ruler was named Mansa Musa, and chroniclers of the times wrote that when he travelled to Mecca on a pilgrimage he distributed so much gold that he caused great inflation lasting a decade “ (“The Empire of Mali” from South African History Online)

Contextual Information



Contextual Information

(“Detail Showing Mansa Musa Sitting on a Throne” from Wikipedia)

  Sunjata is credited with founding the Mali Empire

He united various clans and defeated the Soso peoples--ruled by King Sumaworo--at the Battle of Kirina (1235)

 Factoid: Sunjata translates to “Sogolon’s lion”  Sunjata is thus known as “the Lion King of Mali”; scholar Mary Ellen Snodgrass observes that Sunjata may be the historical basis for Disney’s The Lion King (“epic, African” from Encyclopedia of the Literature of Empire)

Contextual Information

 Family/genealogy and Islam.

“Political alliances are often determined by ancestral ties between royal families, and intermarriage between kingdoms serves to bind separate communities into a larger familial group. The genealogy of the ruling king is preserved in detail through the jali, and he is often called upon to recite the entire history of the royal family on important ceremonial occasions and especially before great battles…

Contextual Information

 …Although Sundiata's [another way to spell Sunjata]

genealogy is based in West Africa, the origins of the family are traced back to Bilali Bounama, the first muezzin and companion of the prophet Muhammad. Like most medieval Muslim dynasties, the Mali emperors linked themselves to the prophet's family or with someone near them. Thus Sundiata is tied both to his ancestral land in Mali and to the newer religion which had spread through northern Africa” (“Sundiata” from Berkeley ORIAS)

Contextual Information



Contextual Information

(“Sunjata’s Family Tree” from Berkeley ORIAS)

  Epic (again!), per definition from the Encyclopedia

Britannica:

An epic may deal with such various subjects as myths, heroic legends, histories, edifying religious tales, animal stories, or philosophical or moral theories. Epic poetry has been and continues to be used by peoples all over the world to transmit their traditions from one generation to another, without the aid of writing. These traditions frequently consist of legendary narratives about the glorious deeds of their national heroes. (“Epic”)

Form

 Some epic elements in Sunjata.

 Narrative poetic structure  meaning, a poem that tells a story

 Heroic legend  the poem details the circumstances, birth and lifetime of Sunjata: “Like many epics, Sunjata is a relation of the hero’s many trials, which he surmounts through his courage, tenacity, and piety” (from Norton)

 Deals with magic/myths  Dò Kamissa (buffalo woman; a kind of spirit), nine sorceresses of Manden, Sunjata’s sisters are sorceresses, prophecies and oracles throughout the narrative, Sumaworo is a sorcerer king

Form

 Oral tradition in Mande society is passed down

through bards called griots  meaning “African poet/performer,” from the French griot (“Griot”)

 Known as jeliw or jelilu among Mande people (Norton)  meaning “sing” or “musicianhood”

Griots / Jeliw serve as “genealogists, musicians, praise-singers, spokespersons and diplomats” (Norton)  known as “guardians of ‘The Word’” because they maintain the oral traditions of the Mande people

Form



Form

 Sunjata is performed with musical instruments, such as an nkoni (lute), a kora (harp), or a bala (xylophone)

 Also features a “call and response” system in which the jeliw speaks and the audience responds with naamu (meaning, “yes” or “we hear you”) (Norton)

(“Balafon” from Wikipedia)

  Storytelling and memory

 Fate

Heroism, especially as regards the role of the hero in his/her culture

 Family and community

Magic (“traditional” religion) and Islam

Major Themes