Sundiata Study Guide (Tjart)

1. How did the text come into existence?
    What is the function of a griot?
    How is a griot trained?
    What evidence of a griot's professional self-interest exists in the text?
    Is a griot subject to error?
    How reliable is material transmitted by oral tradition?

2. What values and examples of desirable behavior are transmitted in this epic?
What is regarded as good and what as evil?

3. What was the religious orientation of the Mandingoes? Do humans have free will:
3a. How do we know Sundiata will be an exceptional person?

3. What societal problems does Sundiata solve?
Plus general questions for the text as a whole.

Note: Sundiata can be confirmed as having the four cardinal virtues: wisdom, courage, moderation, and justice.

Compiled from The Power of Myth, Joseph Campbell, with Bill Moyers (New York: Doubleday, 1988), and The Heroic Temper, Bernard M. W. Knox (Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 1964) .

1. Every society has at least one societal or cultural hero. Most have several. The societal hero perceives a major problem or deficiency in his or her society and devotes himself or herself to solving this problem. By definition, a societal hero successfully resolves at least one major societal problem.

2. The societal hero experiences anger or rage over the deficiencies that exist in a society.

3. He or she has a range of experiences beyond the ordinary, either to discover what has been lost or to discover a cure or solution to an identified problem.

4. He or she is devoted to improving the status quo, to the point of being obsessed with doing this.

5. He or she experiences immense suffering and pays an enormous personal price for the eventual achievement or gain of knowledge and insight. (This may include giving one's own life for a cause.) He or she devotes his or her life to something bigger than himself or herself and is willing to endure unmerited suffering for a just cause.

6. He or she experiences despair, the feeling that all is lost and will never turn out positively.

8. Numerous and seemingly ever-recurring hurdles and challenges must be overcome. Others attempt to divert his or her attention to other activities. They may reason or attempt to tempt or coerce, and the attraction for the societal hero to abandon the quest is strong. Stubborn perseverance (steadfastness) in attaining the desired objective, thereby fulfilling the societal hero's felt mission in life, is evident. The societal hero steadfastly resists changing his or her position on an important issue.

9. Periods of isolation are common. A cycle of going away (into isolation and a developmental experience) and returning to a social context and grappling with a significant societal problem exists.

11. Legends develop about the lives, births, and deaths of societal heroes, and their graves become special sites, regarded as having special power or significance. Often the graves become pilgrimage sites.

1 & 4. Perceives a major deficiency in his or her society. Devotes himself/herself to solving this problem. Improves the status quo.
Mali needs independence, freedom, and justice. Soumaoro, a cruel, unjust king, has taken Mali. p. 42
Mali needs a rightful leader. Sundiata will be the giant to crush Soumaoro and restore independence. p. 45 Sundiata recognizes the problem & he will lead the attack for independence. pp.45-6

Sundiata commits himself to independence for Mali, p. 56, 66
Need for justice. p. 61
Needs to defeat Soumaoro's enemies. p. 70

Creates an empire. p. 72
Restorer of peace and order. p. 74
One single king = unity in Mali. p. 75
Sundiata provides the basis for civilized society, distributes land and power. p.78
Sundiata gave a constitution to Mali. p. 83
Sundiata was the father of Mali. p. 82, 84
Sundiata rebuilt the capital, Niani, p. 81

2. Experiences anger or rage over deficiencies that exist.
Sundiata is angry when Soumaoro takes his griot, Balla Fasseke. p. 27
Sundiata is angry in battle with Soumaoro. p. 54
Sundiata is angry in last battle with Soumaoro. p. 65
Sundiata is angry with Fakoli for being too independent. p. 81

3. Has a range of experiences beyond the ordinary.
Transfiguration experience of Sundiata. p. 72
Divination signs: sacrificed cocks found on their backs. p. 72
Prophecies associated with Sundiata: pp. 5-6, 27-28, 30

5 & 7. Experiences immense, unmerited suffering. Is put down, disparaged.
Exile to Mama from Niani. pp. 26ff.
Sundiata is the butt of jokes & criticism for not walking as soon as other children and develops late. pp. 15, 18, 19

6. Experiences despair and doubt.
Sundiata felt some despair when Soumaoro escaped from him, but Sundiata didn't give up. p. 53: "In the life of every man there comes a moment when doubt settles in and the man questions himself on his own destiny."

8. Societal hero must overcome hurdles.
Sundiata is crippled from birth. p. 15
Soumaoro escapes, disappears, and re-appears. He is elusive (as evil is). p. 52ff.
Need to destroy Soumaoro's magical power. p. 56
Short-cut to catching Soumaoro is difficult terrain. p. 66
Soumaoro escapes Sundiata a second time. p. 67

Attempts are made by friends and foes alike to divert attention of societal hero.
King at Mema, Mansa Tounkara, attempts to get Sundiata to change his mind and stay on rather than fulfill his sense of destiny and go after Soumaoro. p. 46

Has sense of mission.
Sundiata senses a great destiny. pp. 29, 37, 46 (very strong on this page)

9. Periods of isolation.
Exile to Mema from Niani. p. 26ff.
Sundiata searches for special pool of powerful water in the middle of a mountain only in the company of his griot, Balla Fasseke. p. 71. Note: The hero in African epics works in the context of groups of people, in contrast to the Greek hero, who experiences total isolation.

10. Creativity is evident. Sundiata deployed his troops in an original way when first confronting Soumaoro. p. 51

11. Legends develop around the births, lives, and deaths of societal heroes.
Has an extraordinary mother, Sogolon, buffalo woman with a hunchback. p. 6ff.
Thunder and lightning precede his birth. p. 13
Is crippled, delayed development. p. 15ff.
Bends iron bar into a bow. Show of strength & maturation to manhood. p. 21
Uproots tree. p. 22
Secret weapon to use against Soumaoro, pp. 64-65--arrow pointed with spur of a white rooster, Soumaoro's sacred totem.
Soumaoro disappears into a mountain. p. 67,77
We never learn what happens to him. Snake dies just as Sundiata enters Soumaoro's room. p. 69
Sundiata penetrates a mountain. p. 71
Stream where he bathed is venerated to this day. p. 72
Whirlwind headed to Mali indicates direction Sundiata is to head in. p. 72
Calabashes of rice are miraculously filled. p. 79
Sundiata is asserted to be the successor to Alexander the Great. p. 37
Sundiata is closely connected-to the Prophet Mohammad via an apparent ancestor of the Keitas, Bilail Bounama (first muezzin and companion to the Prophet). p. 2

Study questions for Sundiata.

Prepared by Professor Emerson Tjart