please I need Maximum two pages

SUNDJATA, THE LION KING1

The following is a condensed oral history told by a legendary Mandingo griot namedDjeli Mamadou Kouyate.2 This version recounts the origin and rise of the greatEmperor Sundjata Keita, a Mandingo prince who founded the Mali Empire in the 13thcentury.

Once upon a time, there lived a king in Niani, a kingdom in ancient Mali. The king’sname was Maghan Kon Fatta although he was also known as Nare Maghan. One day, anitinerant oracle, one of the leading hunters in the region, came to King Maghan KonFatta’s palace, and informed the king that the time would soon come when the kingwould produce a son who would grow to become a great ruler who would unite all thekingdoms 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 haveto be the son of an ugly woman who the king would have to marry. Shortly after thisrevelation by the oracle, two hunters came through town accompanied by a very uglywoman with a hunchback whose name was Sogolon. Her ugliness caused a stir and thenews of her presence in the city reached the king’s ear.The two hunters gained an audience with the king and explained to him how they cameto be in possession of such an ugly woman. The hunters told the king that they had beenworking in Do, a neighboring kingdom that was being devastated by attacks on farmersand their crops by vicious buffaloes. The two hunters had gone there in response to acall for help by the King of Do who was offering a big prize to any hunter who could killthe menacing buffaloes.While there, the two hunters came across an old woman who the hunters treated withmuch kindness and respect. She then told them the secret to killing the buffalo but shemade them promise her that when the King of Do offered them the pick of all themaidens of his kingdom, they would choose the ugliest. The hunters killed the buffaloesand kept their promise to the old woman and that was how Sogolon came into theirpossession.King Maghan Kon Fatta interpreted the hunters’ story and their presence in Niani as thefulfillment of the oracle’s prophesy and therefore he made Sogolon one of his wives.1Sundjata was a member of the Keita royal family dynasty. The Keita clan’s totemic emblem is the lion.2The story was published in 1960 by the Guinean scholar and playwright Djibril Tamsir Niane, who recordedMamadou Kouyate in his ancestral village of Djeliba Koro. According to Niane, “one can still find the griot almost inhis ancient setting, far from the city, in the old villages of Mali…which can boast of still preserving the customs ofthe times of their ancestors.” He goes on to inform us that “generally, in every village of old Mali, there is a griotfamily which conserves historical tradition and teaches it…unfortunately, the West has taught us to scorn oralsources in matters of history, all that is not written in black and white being considered without foundation.”Sogolon initially resisted the king’s advances and after much tribulation, Sundjata wasconceived.Sundjata had a very difficult childhood although he grew up in his father’s palace. Thefirst problem both Sundjata and Sogolon faced throughout Sundjata’s childhood was therelentless hostility of Sassouma Berete, the king’s first wife or ‘Queen Mother.’Sassouma was aware of the prophecy and wanted her own son, Prince DankaranTouman, to succeed to the throne. She therefore made Sogolon’s and Sundjata’s lives aliving hell, always spreading vicious gossip and rumors about them which peoplebelieved.The second obstacle young Sundjata faced was the fact that he was born crippled anddid not walk until he was seven years old. Therefore he was a sensitive child and did notspeak much. However, Sundjata’s father saw the greatness and innate wisdom in thelittle boy and decided to give him Balla Fasseke to serve as Sundjata’s griot. BallaFasseke was the son of King Maghan Kon Fatta’s own griot. When the king died shortlyafterwards, the Royal Council decided to support Prince Dankaran Touman’s claim tothe throne. They saw no future in Sundjata who was seen by the Council as a uselesscripple.One day, the Queen Mother, Sassouma, went on one of her usual tirades against Sogolonand embarrassed and humiliated Sogolon in a very public manner, in front of her son.Suddenly, Sundjata, to the shock and surprise of everyone, pulled himself up on his rodand stood up on his two legs to defend his mother. From that day forward, his strengthwas unmistakable.Sassouma became frightened of Sundjata and the threat he represented to her and herson, the new King Dankara Touman. Fearing that they could lose power, Sassouma andthe new king hatched a plot to send Sogolon and Sundjata into exile far away fromNiani. For a period of seven years, Sogolon and Sundjata wandered from kingdom tokingdom seeking asylum. Some of their hosts were hospitable while others mistreatedthem. This experience also gave Sundjata an opportunity to learn first-hand about thekingdoms and peoples of Mali, their customs and their systems of government.While in exile, Sundjata impressed most everyone he met with his wisdom andbrilliance. During that period, he spent a considerable amount of time with King MoussaTounkara of Mena kingdom in old Ghana. King Moussa Tounkara took Sundjata underhis wing like a son and schooled Sundjata in the ways of war and statecraft.When the evil Soumaoru Kante, King of the Sousous, brought his war of conquest toNiani, a delegation from Niani fled to Ghana to find Sundjata and bring him back toclaim his throne and lead the fight against Soumaoru, who had by this time successfullyemployed a series of cruel tactics in conquering a wide swath of smaller Mandekingdoms. Initially, King Moussa Tounkara was not happy to hear that Sundjata wasleaving Mena and going back to Mali but he was ultimately convinced that Sundjata wasdoing the right thing in fulfilling his destiny and he gave Sundjata his blessing and theservices of several battalions of his army.On his way back to Niani, Sundjata passed through many of the cities and kingdoms hehad visited during his period of exile. Now, as he travelled home, going back throughthose places, he kept recruiting soldiers for his army, building it up into a powerfulforce. Once in Mali, Sundjata’s armies finally confronted the armies of Soumaoro inseveral battles. Soumaoro’s armies were defeated but Soumaoro himself escaped. It wasbelieved that the reason Soumaoro was able to avoid capture was because he wasprotected by magic. Sundjata therefore made the decision that he too would have to turnto magic for help in finally capturing Soumaoro.Sundjata consulted his wizards who advised him to perform an animal sacrifice andhave a magical arrow made specifically for Soumaoro, who had by then regrouped andraised 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 magicalarrow. Soumaoro loses the battle but escaped again. This time however, Sundjata has athis side Prince Fakoli, Soumaoro’s nephew, who defected with his troops to Sundjataafter his uncle betrayed him. Together, they pursued Soumaoro for several days, finallytrapping him in a cave and killing him.Sundjata then turned his attention to quickly defeating the other Mandingo kings whohad remained allies of the defeated Soumaoro. After his final victory, Sundjata returnedto Niani triumphant, and proceeded to establish the Mali Empire. There he wascrowned the Mansa of Mali. The first thing he did was to divide the empire into 12 newkingdoms, appointing as kings his supporters from the various regions of Mali. He heldan annual assembly with the kings to review the administration of the empire. He alsoserved as the final court of appeal in judicial cases.After peace returned to Mali, vast fields of sorghum, rice, millet, cotton, and indigosprang up and surrounded the towns and villages, and Mali knew prosperity again whilethe taxes filled the king’s warehouses. Niani became a center of the gold and salt tradefor the trans-Sahara caravans. New cities grew alongside silk-cotton and baobab treesand people could travel from town to town without fearing bandits. Sundjata,remembered as a man of action, and for his compassion, his charisma and his sense ofjustice, rests in Balandougou, near Niani, where he met his death in the waters of theSankarani. But his spirit lives on and today the Keitas still come and bow before thestone 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? Whatis his historical significance?

2. Where is ancient Mali? What is the difference between ancient Mali the place andancient 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 he’s always aman) in the government?

9. How reliable is the griot’s version of the history of Mali? Is the griot a storyteller or ahistorian?

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 specialstatus 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 socialclasses in ancient Mali? What are they ?

( Maximum two pages )