Sundiata Keita (Mandinka, Malinke: ; 1217 – c. 1255,The years of Sundiata Keita's birth and death are estimates based on the epic and the historical events surrounding that period, as well as other scholarly works based on Arab and North African writings. Scholars such as Snodgrass gave a date range of 1217–1255. See Snodgrass (2009), p. 77. N'Ko spelling: ; also known as Manding Diara, Lion of Mali, Sogolon Djata, son of Sogolon, Nare Maghan and Sogo Sogo Simbon Salaba) was a prince and founder of the Mali Empire. He was also the great-uncle of the Malian ruler Mansa Musa, who is regarded as the wealthiest person of all time,Cox, George O. African Empires and Civilizations: ancient and medieval, African Heritage Studies Publishers, 1974, p. 160. although there are no reliable ways to accurately calculate his wealth.
Written sources augment the Mande oral histories, with the Moroccan traveller Muhammad ibn Battúta (1304–1368) and the Tunisian historian Ibn Khaldun (1332–1406) both having travelled to Mali in the century after Sundiata's death, and providing independent verification of his existence. The semi-historical but legendary Epic of Sundiata by the Malinké/Maninka people centers on his life. The epic poem is primarily known through oral tradition, transmitted by generations of Maninka griots (djeli or jeliw).Conrad, David C., Empires of Medieval West Africa, Infobase Publishing, 2005, p. 12, . The Manden Charter issued during his reign is listed by UNESCO as one of an intangible cultural heritage.UNESCO, "Manden Charter, proclaimed in Kurukan Fuga", 2009. Access here . A translation of it can be found in pp. 75-77 of this publication .
Epic of Sundiata
The oral traditions relating to Sundiata Keita were passed down generation after generation by the local griots (djeli or jeliw), until eventually their stories were put into writing. Sundiata was the son of Naré Maghann Konaté (variation: Maghan Konfara) and Sogolon Condé (variations: "Sogolon Kolonkan" or "Sogolon Kédjou", the daughter of the "buffalo woman", so-called because of her ugliness and hunchback).Conrad, David C., Sunjata: a West African Epic of the Mande peoples (eds David C. Conrad, Djanka Tassey Condé, trans. David C. Conrad), pp. ix, x, xxvi, Hackett Publishing, 2004, . Sundiata was crippled from childhood and his mother (Sogolon) was the subject of ridicule among her co-wives. She was constantly teased and ridiculed openly for her son's disability. This significantly affected Sundiata and he was determined to do everything he possibly could in order to walk like his peers. Through this determination, he one day miraculously got up and walked. Among his peers, he became a leader. His paternal half-brother, Dankaran Touman, and Dankaran's mother, Sassouma Bereté, were cruel and resentful of Sundiata and his mother. Their cruelty escalated after the death of Naré Maghann (the king and father of Sundiata). To escape persecution and threats on her son's life, Sogolon took her children, Sundiata and his sisters, into exile. This exile lasted for many years and took them to different countries within the Ghana Empire and eventually to Mema, where the king of Mema granted them asylum. Sundiata was admired by the King of Mema for his courage and tenacity. As such, he was given a senior position within the kingdom. When King Soumaoro Kanté of Sosso conquered the Mandinka people, messengers were sent to go and look for Sogolon and her children, as Sundiata was destined to be a great leader according to prophecy. Upon finding him in Mema, they persuaded him to come back in order to liberate the Mandinkas and their homeland. On his return, he was accompanied by an army given to him by the King of Mema. The warlords of Mali at the time who were his age group included: Tabon Wana, Kamadia Kamara (or Kamadia Camara), Faony Condé, Siara Kuman Konaté and Tiramakhan Traore (many variations: "Trimaghan" or "Tiramaghan", the future conqueror of Kaabu). It was on the plain of Siby (var: Sibi) where they formed a pact brotherhood in order to liberate their country and people from the powerful Sosso king. At The Battle of Kirina, Sundiata and his allies defeated the Sosso king, and he became the first Emperor of the Mali Empire. He was the first of the Mandinka line of kings to adopt the royal title Mansa (king or emperor in the Mandinka language).An Interview with Ibn Battuta , Kathleen Knoblock, Primary Source Fluency Activities: World Cultures (In Sub-Saharan Africa), pub. Shell Education 2007 Travels in Asia and Africa, 1325-1354 , by Ibn Battuta, London 2005, p. 324 On page 256, Jan Jansen writes: "Mansa is generally translated as 'king,' 'ruler' or 'ancestor.' The Griaulians, however, often translate mansa as 'God,' 'the divine principle' or 'priest king,' although they never argue the choice for this translation, which has an enormous impact on their analysis of the Kamabolon ceremony."A Grammar of the Mandingo Language: With Vocabularies , by Robert Maxwell Macbrair, London 1873, p. 5.Making America – A History of the United States , 5th edition, by Carol Berkin, Christopher Miller, Robert Cherny, James Gormly & Douglas Egerton, Boston 2011, p. 13 Maurice Delafosse, La langue mandingue et ses dialects (Malinké, Bambara, Dioula), Paris 1929, p. 612. There, the author brings down the French word "roi" (English: king), and brings its Mandingo equivalent, mã-nsa, mã-sa, mā-sa, ma-nsa-kye.
The Mandinka epic does not give us dates, but Arab and North African writers who visited the area about a century after the epic's events documented on paper some of the information, including dates and a genealogy. Conversely, the written sources left out other pieces of information that the oral tradition includes.Ki-Zerbo (1998), UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. IV, p. 55.
Sogolon Djata Sundjata Keyita Mari Djata or "Mārī-Djāta" (according to Ibn Khaldun in the late 14th century) The Lion King The proper English spelling of Sundiata's name is Sunjata, pronounced soon-jah-ta, approaching the actual pronunciation in the original Mandinka. The name Sogolon derives from his mother and Jata means lion. It is the traditional way of praising someone in some West African societies (Gambia, Senegal, Mali and Guinea in particular). The name Sundiata praises him through his mother which means "the lion of Sogolon" or "Sogolon's lion". The name Jata derives from Jara (lion). Jara and many of its variations such as jata, jala or jada are merely regional variations, from Gambia, Guinea or Mali, for instance. Sundiata's name is thus a derivation of his mother's name Sogolon (Son or its variation Sun) and Jata (lion).Conrad, David C., Sunjata: a West African epic of the Mande peoples (eds David C. Conrad, Djanka Tassey Condé, trans. David C. Conrad), p. xxxv, Hackett Publishing, 2004, .Conrad, David C., Empires of Medieval West Africa, p. 35.
Surname (Keita or Konaté?)
Some Bambaras and Mandinkas have proposed that the name Keita actually means inheritor (heir-apparent) in the Mandinka language, and that Sundiata's real surname is Konaté (French spelling in Mali) or Konateh, variations: Konate, Conateh (English spelling in the Gambia where the Mandinkas make up the largest ethnic group). It is proposed that Sundiata Keita's father, Naré Maghann Konaté, took the real family name Konaté while his successors were "Keitas in waiting" (heirs to the throne). The name Keita is a clan name rather than a surname.BBC World Service, see: See: BBC World Service, The Story of Africa, West African Kingdoms (under Origins). Although in some West African societies a clan can be similar to the family name (see Joof family), such similarities do not exist between the names Keita and Konaté. Both points of contention agree that Keita is not a real surname, but rather a royal name, in spite of the fact that Sundiata is referred to as Sundiata Keita in many scholarly works. At present, there is no consensus among the scholars regarding the name Sundiata Konaté.
Battle of Kirina
French ethnographer Maurice Delafosse previously proposed that Soumaoro Kanté's grandfather, with the help of his army and the Sosso nobility of Kaniaga, captured what was left of the sacked Ghana Empire and by 1180, Diara Kanté (var: Jara Kante), Soumaoro's father, gained control of Koumbi Saleh, dethroned a Muslim dynasty and continued the Diarisso Dynasty (variation: Jariso or Jarisso) whose son (Soumaoro) went on to succeed him and launched an offensive against the Mandinkas. See vols. 1-3 Delafosse, Maurice, Haut-Sénégal-Niger (Soudan Français), le Pays, les Peuples, les Langues, l'Histoire, les Civilisations (vols. 1-3)(in Gallica). Delafosse, Maurice, Traditions historiques et légendaires du Soudan occidental, Traduites d'un manuscrit arabe inédit par Maurice Delafosse (in Gallica). Delafosse's original work has been refuted and discarded by many scholars including Monteil, Cornevin, etc. There was no Diara Kanté in the oral sources. That was an addition by Delafosee which was contrary to the original sources.Delafosse merely linked different legends (i.e. the Tautain story etc.) and prescribed Diara Kanté (1180) as the father of Soumaoro, in order to link the Sossos to the Diarisso Dynasty of Kaniaga (Jarisso). He also failed to give sources as to how he arrived to that conclusion and the genealogy he created. Monteil describes his work as "unacceptable". The African Studies Association describe it as "...too creative to be useful to historians". See: African Studies Association, History in Africa, Vol. 11, African Studies Association, 1984, University of Michigan, pp. 42-51. Monteil, Charles, "Fin de siècle à Médine (1898-1899)", Bulletin de l'lFAN, vol. 28, série B, n° 1-2, 1966, p. 166. Monteil, Charles, "La légende officielle de Soundiata, fondateur de l'empire manding", Bulletin du Comité d'Etudes historiques et scientifiques de l'AOF, VIII, n° 2, 1924. Robert Cornevin, Histoire de l'Afrique, Tome I: des origines au XVIe siècle (Paris, 1962), 347-48 (ref. to Delafosse in Haut-Sénégal-Niger vol. 1, pp. 256-257). Crowder, Michael, West Africa: an introduction to its history, Longman, 1977, p. 31 (based on Delafosse's work). Delafosse, Maurice Haut-Sénégal-Niger: Le Pays, les Peuples, les Langues; l'Histoire; les Civilizations. vols. 1-3, Paris: Émile Larose (1912) (eds Marie François Joseph Clozel).