Answer & Explanation:SUNDJATA,
THE LION KING[1]
The
following is an oral history told by a legendary Mandingo griot
named Djeli Mamadou Kouyate.[2]
This version recounts the origin and rise of the great Emperor Sundjata Keita, a
Mandingo prince who founded the Mali Empire in the 13th century.
Once upon a time, there lived a
king in Niani, a kingdom in ancient Mali. The kings name was Maghan Kon Fatta
although he was also known as Nare Maghan.
One day, an itinerant oracle, one of the leading hunters in the region,
came to King Maghan Kon Fattas palace, and informed the king that the time
would soon come when the king would produce a son who would grow to become a
great ruler who would unite all the kingdoms of Mali into one great empire and
rule over it.
The oracle went on to inform
the king that the yet to be born future emperor would have to be the son of an
ugly woman who the king would have to marry. Shortly after this revelation by
the oracle, two hunters came through town accompanied by a very ugly woman with
a hunchback whose name was Sogolon. Her ugliness caused a stir and the news of
her presence in the city reached the kings ear.
The two hunters gained an
audience with the king and explained to him how they came to be in possession
of such an ugly woman. The hunters told the king that they had been working in Do,
a neighboring kingdom that was being devastated by attacks on farmers and their
crops by vicious buffaloes. The two hunters had gone there in response to a
call for help by the King of Do who was offering a big prize to any hunter who
could kill the menacing buffaloes.
While there, the two hunters
came across an old woman who the hunters treated with much kindness and
respect. She then told them the secret to killing the buffalo but she made them
promise her that when the King of Do offered them the pick of all the maidens
of his kingdom, they would choose the ugliest. The hunters killed the buffaloes
and kept their promise to the old woman and that was how Sogolon came into
their possession.
King Maghan Kon Fatta interpreted
the hunters story and their presence in Niani as the fulfillment of the
oracles prophesy and therefore he made Sogolon one of his wives. Sogolon
initially resisted the kings advances and after much tribulation, Sundjata was
conceived.
Sundjata had a very difficult
childhood although he grew up in his fathers palace. The first problem both
Sundjata and Sogolon faced throughout Sundjatas childhood was the relentless
hostility of Sassouma Berete, the kings first wife or Queen Mother. Sassouma was aware of the prophecy and wanted
her own son, Prince Dankaran Touman, to succeed to the throne. She therefore made
Sogolons and Sundjatas lives a living hell, always spreading vicious gossip
and rumors about them which people believed.
The second obstacle young
Sundjata faced was the fact that he was born crippled and did not walk until he
was seven years old. Therefore he was a sensitive child and did not speak much.
However, Sundjatas father saw the greatness and innate wisdom in the little
boy and decided to give him Balla Fasseke to serve as Sundjatas griot. Balla Fasseke was the son of King
Maghan Kon Fattas own griot. When
the king died shortly afterwards, the Royal Council decided to support Prince
Dankaran Toumans claim to the throne. They saw no future in Sundjata who was
seen by the Council as a useless cripple.
One day, the Queen Mother,
Sassouma, went on one of her usual tirades against Sogolon and embarrassed and
humiliated Sogolon in a very public manner in the general market, in front of
her son. Suddenly, Sundjata, to the shock and surprise of everyone, pulled
himself up on his rod and stood up on his two legs to defend his mother. From
that day forward, his strength was unmistakable.
Sassouma became frightened of
Sundjata and the threat he represented to her and her son, the new King Dankara
Touman. Fearing that they could lose power, Sassouma and the new king hatched a
plot to send Sogolon and Sundjata into exile far away from Niani. For a period
of seven years, Sogolon and Sundjata wandered from kingdom to kingdom seeking
asylum. Some of their hosts were hospitable while others mistreated them. This
experience also gave Sundjata an opportunity to learn first-hand about the
kingdoms and peoples of Mali, their customs and their systems of government.
While in exile, Sundjata
impressed most everyone he met with his wisdom and brilliance. During that
period, he spent a considerable amount of time with King Moussa Tounkara o
f
Mena kingdom in old Ghana. King Moussa Tounkara took Sundjata under his wing
like a son and schooled Sundjata in the ways of war and statecraft.
When the evil Soumaoru Konteh,
King of the Sousous, brought his war of conquest to Niani, a delegation from
Niani fled to Ghana to find Sundjata and bring him back to claim his throne and
lead the fight against Soumaoru, who had by this time successfully employed a
series of cruel tactics in conquering a wide swath of smaller Mande kingdoms.
Initially, King Moussa Tounkara was not happy to hear that Sundjata was leaving
Mena and going back to Mali but he was ultimately convinced that Sundjata was
doing the right thing in fulfilling his destiny and he gave Sundjata his
blessing and the services of several battalions of his army.
On his way back to Niani,
Sundjata passed through many of the cities and kingdoms he had visited during
his period of exile. Now, as he travelled home, going back through those
places, he kept recruiting soldiers for his army, building it up into a
powerful force. Once in Mali, Sundjatas armies finally confronted the armies
of Soumaoro in several battles. Soumaoros armies were defeated but Soumaoro
himself escaped. It was believed that the reason Soumaoro was able to avoid
capture was because he was protected by magic. Sundjata therefore made the decision
that he too would have to turn to magic for help in finally capturing Soumaoro.
Sundjata consulted his wizards who
advised him to perform an animal sacrifice and have a magical arrow made
specifically for Soumaoro, who had by then regrouped and raised another army.
In the Battle of Kirina, the last and largest battle of the war, Sundjata is
able to come up close to Soumaoro and nicks him with the tip of the magical
arrow. Soumaoro loses the battle but escaped again. This time however, Sundjata
has at his side Prince Fakoli, Soumaoros nephew, who defected with his troops
to Sundjata after his uncle betrayed him. Together, they pursued Soumaoro for
several days, finally trapping him in a cave and killing him.
Sundjata then turned his
attention to quickly defeating the other Mandingo kings who had remained allies
of the defeated Soumaoro. After his final victory, Sundjata returned to Niani
triumphant, and proceeded to establish the Mali Empire. There he was crowned the Mansa of Mali. The first thing he did was to divide the empire into
12 new kingdoms, appointing as kings his supporters from the various regions of
Mali. He held an annual assembly with the kings to review the administration of
the empire. He also served as the final court of appeal in judicial cases.
After peace returned to Mali,
vast fields of sorghum, rice, millet, cotton, and indigo sprang up and surrounded
the towns and villages, and Mali knew prosperity again while the taxes filled
the kings warehouses. Niani became a center of the gold and salt trade for the
trans-Sahara caravans. New cities grew alongside silk-cotton and baobab trees
and people could travel from town to town without fearing bandits. The body of Sundjata,
remembered as a man of action, and for his compassion, his charisma and his
sense of justice, rests in the valley of Balandougou, near Niani, where he met
his death in the waters of the Sankarani River. But his spirit lives on and
today the Keitas still come and bow before the tombstone under which lies the
father of Mali.
Please
answer the following:
1. Who is Sundjata Keita? What was the basis of his claim to
the throne of Niani? What is his historical significance?
2. Where is ancient Mali? What is the difference between
ancient Mali the place and ancient Mali the empire?
3. Who are the Mande speaking peoples of West Africa?
4. Are the Mandingo speaking people a tribe? Why or why not?
5. What is the role of magic in ancient Mandingo culture?
6. Is belief in magic similar to religious belief?
7. According to the story, what type of economy did ancient
Mali have?
8. In Mandingo culture, who is a griot, and what role does he play (and hes always a man) in the
government?
9. How reliable is the griots
version of the history of Mali? Is the griot
a storyteller or a historian?
10. How are the women portrayed in this story?
11. In ancient Mali, hunters were either members of a
special guild or a secret fraternity. What specific knowledge did hunters in
ancient Mali possess that gave them that special status and privilege? (THE
ANSWER IS NOT THAT THEY KILL ANIMALS)
12. Based on the information in this story, are you able to
identify some of the social classes in ancient Mali? What are they?