Sundiata Analysis

Sundiata: An epic of old Mali The story of Sundiata is told by a griot named Djeli Mamadou Kouyaté. He starts off with the history of Sundiata’s ancestors, seeing as the history is important to the man whose victory will lead to the creation of the Mali Empire. Sundiata’s father, Maghan Kon Fatta, was the king of the city called Niani. One day, a soothsaying hunter tell him that he will produce a great ruler by marrying an ugly woman. Later that day, two hunters who have killed a buffalo that once terrorized an entire city bring Maghan an ugly women that they offer to him as a wife, and Maghan sees this woman as the woman the soothsayer was talking about. The hunters earned her from a king after they killed a buffalo that had terrorized the king’s people. The two hunters showed kindness to an old woman, so that old woman told the two hunters how to kill the monstrous buffalo. Once they killed the buffalo, the woman told them to choose the ugliest woman they could find. The two hunters listened and presented this woman to Sundiata’s father, Maghan Kon Fatta. This woman’s name is Songolon and she is the mother of Sundiata.

The second is that fact that Sundiata is crippled and cannot walk until he is seven years old. Despite his physical impairment, Maghan Kon Fatta sees wisdom in Sundiata and gifts him griot Balla Fasséké, who is the son of his own griot. The king dies very soon afterwards and his oldest son, Dankaran Touman, is given control by the elders because they do not see a future for Sundiata. One day when the queen mother embarrasses Songolon, Sundiata’s mother, Sundiata uses an iron rod to help himself stand up and from this day forward, his strength is