Mabo In Sundiata

Intended to be the narratee of the story of Sundiata, he ends up developing an unrestrained interest in it much to the surprise of his friends whose company he avoided, to the chagrin of his mother who was worried that he was losing appetite, and the consternation of his teacher who thought that he had drastically changed. The bright, studious and intelligent Mabo (26-28. 37-41), that was the pride of his mother as the only son, and the admiration of his teacher for his aptitude in mathematics, gets disenchanted with school and develops instead an unrestrained passion for a story in which he found more meaning and a sense of belonging. His ancestor was no longer a gorilla, as Evolution Theory was teaching him in school, but Maghan Kon Fatta, King of Mandé. This made the Sundiata story not only an epic of the society, but a story of Mabo’s roots. Mabo’s interest in the Sundiata story grew alongside with

His attitude towards the griot, as Sitan rightly notices, was that of total respect and sense of fear for what Griot Kuyateh stood for. He had historical reasons to explain this kind of awe: “Listen, […] this old man, Djéliba Kouyaté is the griot of my father. His father was the griot of my grandfather. For centuries the Kouyatés have been the griots of the Keitas. I can’t help it.”(135). He could not turn his back on this past just like that. He loses his authoritative voice as husband and head of the family and could not in anyway take any hard stance against the griot even though things were going out of control. The most ludicrous episode that in a way confirms in what esteem he held Griot Kouyaté was when he asked him (Boicar) to join him in the afternoon prayer, sending him into a mad search for a praying mat in the house that never existed and exposed him to the contempt and mockery of