Sundiata Keita

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Mansa Sundiata Keita
Founder and
Muslim[7][8]

Sundiata Keita (Mandinka, Malinke: [sʊndʒæta keɪta]; c. 1217–c. 1255,[9] N'Ko spelling: ߛߏ߲߬ߖߘߊ߬ ߞߋߕߊ߬; 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 usually regarded as the wealthiest person of all time,[10][11] although there are no reliable ways to accurately calculate his wealth.[12]

Written sources augment the Mande oral histories, with the Moroccan traveller

Manden Charter issued during his reign is listed by UNESCO as one of an intangible cultural heritage.[14]

Epic of Sundiata

Main article: Epic of Sundiata
A modern balafon. The balafon plays an important role in the Epic of Sundiata. The magical balafon belonging to Soumaoro Kanté was stolen by Sundiata Keita's griot - Balla Fasséké and taken to Mandinka country.[15][16]

The oral traditions relating to Sundiata Keita were passed down generation after generation by the local

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).[18][19][20][21][22][23]

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.[24]

  • Sogolon Djata
  • Sundjata Keyita
  • Mari Djata or "Mārī-Djāta" (according to Ibn Khaldun in the late 14th century)[25]
  • The Lion King[26]

The proper English spelling of Sundiata's name is Sunjata, pronounced soon-jah-ta, approaching the actual pronunciation in the original

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).[27][28]

Surname (Keita or Konaté?)

See also:
Keita Dynasty

Some Bambaras and Mandinkas have proposed that the name Keita actually means inheritor (

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).[27] The name Keita is a clan name rather than a surname.[29] 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

Further information: Battle of Kirina and Military history of the Mali Empire
Terracotta archer figure from Mali (13th-15th century), with a quiver on his back. The bow and quiver of arrows were the symbols of power in Imperial Mali.[30]

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.[31][32] 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.[33]
The consensus is, in c. 1235, Sundiata who had survived one of Soumaoro's earlier raids went to war with the help of his allies against King Soumaoro of Sosso. Although a valiant warrior, Soumaoro was defeated at
Traditional African religion. According to Fyle, Soumaoro was the inventor of the balafon and the dan (a four-string guitar used by the hunters and griots).[35] After his victory at Kirina, Sundiata took control of the former conquered states of the Sosso and appropriated privileges among those who participated in the defeat of Soumaoro. The former allies of Soumaoro were also later defeated, in particular the king of Jolof. Serer oral tradition speaks of a Serer king of Jolof, involved in the occult (just as Soumaoro), who was later defeated by Tiramakhan Traore (one of the generals of Sundiata) after Sundiata sent his men to buy horses in Jolof. It is reported that, when Sundiata sent his men to Jolof to buy horses in a caravan loaded with gold, the king of Jolof took all the gold and horses – known among some as "the robbery of the horses". In a revenge attack, Sundiata sent his general to Jolof to assassinate the king.[36] It is believed that, it was probably this king of Jolof (known as Mansa Jolofing or Jolofing Mansa) who sided with Soumaoro at The Battle of Kirina[37] and possibly belongs to the Ngom Dynasty of Jolof, the predecessors of the Diaw and Ndiaye Dynasties of Jolof.[38]
At present, little is known about the Ngom Dynasty of Jolof.

Niane has advanced the claim that, the Jolofing Mansa sided with Sumaguru [or Soumaoro] because "like him, he was hostile to Islam." He went on to state that:

"He [the King of Jolof] confiscated Diata's [Sundiata's] horses and sent him a skin, saying that he should make shoes out of it since he was neither a hunter nor a king worthy to mount a horse."[39]

Religion

In his piece in the General History of Africa, Volume 4, p. 133,

Suleyman, claimed that Mansa Musa's grandfather was named Sariq Jata and had converted to Islam.[41]
This may be a reference to Sundiata, though if so Ibn Battuta was apparently mistaken about the genealogy, as Musa's grandfather was Sundiata's brother Mande Bory. Other medieval Arabic sources claim that a ruler before Sundiata named Barmandana was the first ruler of Mali to convert to Islam.

Some Muslim

Dhu al-Qarnayn, a conqueror and king mentioned in the Quran, commonly regarded as a reference to Alexander the Great[dubious – discuss].[43] Claims such as these are referred to by scholars like G. Wesley Johnson as nothing more than "Islamic legitimacy" - in African countries where Islam is now the predominant religion such as Senegal, and where Muslim griots try to link historical African figures to the prophet Muhammad either through a line of descent or by claiming that the ancestor of the historical figure belonged to Muhammad's tribe or was one of his followers (an attempt to distance them from their traditional African religious past).[44][45] Although Sundiata was not a Muslim, it is clear that the original epic of Sundiata was later affected by what Ralph Austen calls "Islamicate" culture—that is, the integration of Islamic and Arab culture.[43]

Imperial Mali

Hausaland (northern Nigeria)..."[46]
Further information: Mali Empire

After his victory at Kirina, Mansa Sundiata established his capital at

Guinea Bissau and conquered them. Tiramakhan was responsible for the conquest of the Senegambia.[48] In Kaabu (part of present-day Guinea Bissau), he defeated the last great Bainuk king (King Kikikor) and annexed his state. The great Kikikor was killed and his kingdom was renamed Kaabu.[49][50] Sundiata was responsible for the conquest of Diafunu and Kita.[48] Although the conquered states were answerable to the Mansa (king) of Mali, Sundiata was not an absolute monarch despite what the title implies. Though he probably wielded popular authority, the Mali Empire was reportedly run like a federation with each tribe having a chief representative at the court.[51] The first tribes were Mandinka clans of Traore, Kamara, Koroma, Konde (or Conde), and of course Keita. The Great Gbara Assembly was in charge of checking the Mansa's power, enforcing his edicts among their people, and selecting the successor (usually the Mansa's son, brother or sister's son).[52] The Empire flourished from the 13th to the late 14th century[13] but began to decline as some vassal states threw away the yoke of Mali and regained their independence. Some of these former vassals went on to form empires of their own.[53]

Death

The generally accepted death year of Mansa Sundiata Keita is c. 1255.

Mansa Khalifa Keita) went on to succeed him as Mansas of the Empire. The famous and notably ostentatious[59] West African ruler Mansa Musa was Sundiata Keita's great-nephew.[10]

Legacy

Further information: Gbara and Kouroukan Fouga

A strong army was a major contributor to the success of Imperial Mali during the reign of Mansa Sundiata Keita.[48] Credit to Mali's conquests cannot all be attributed to Sundiata Keita but equally shared among his generals, and in this, Tiramakhan Traore stood out as one of the elite generals and warlords of Sundiata's Imperial Mali.[48] However, in a wider perspective of 13th century West African military history, Sundiata stood out as a great leader who was able to command the loyalties of his generals and army.[48][60]

It was during his reign that Mali first began to become an economic power, a trend continued by his successors and improved on thanks to the ground work set by Sundiata, who controlled the region's trade routes and gold fields.[47] The social and political constitution of Mali were first being codified during the reign of Mansa Sundiata Keita. Known as the Gbara and the Kouroukan Fouga, although not written and even subject to alterations in retelling and when they were first recorded in written form, they were part of the social and political norms of Mali. Many of these laws have been incorporated into the constitution of modern-day Mali.[51]

"By unifying the military force of 12 states, Sundiata becomes an emperor known as the Lion King of Mali, who controls tribes from the Niger River west to the Atlantic Ocean. Walt Disney Studios reprised the story of Sundiata in 1994 as an animated film, The Lion King, with animals substituting for the humans of Mali legend."

Ellen Snodgrass[61]

Sundiata Keita was not merely a conqueror who was able to rule over a large empire with different tribes and languages, but also developed Mali's mechanisms for agriculture, and is reported to have introduced cotton and weaving in Mali.[62] Towards the end of his reign, "absolute security" is reported to have "prevailed throughout his dominion."[62]

From a global perspective, the Epic of Sundiata and the Mali Empire is taught in many schools, colleges and universities, not just in West Africa but in many parts of the World.[15][63][64] Some scholars such as Ellen Snodgrass and others have observed similarities with the 13th-century Epic of Sundiata to Walt Disney's 1994 animated film The Lion King.[61] Disney has maintained that the film was inspired by William Shakespeare's Hamlet.[65]

The 1995 Burkinabe movie Keïta! l'Héritage du griot tells the legend of Sundiata Keita.[66]

The video game

Age of Empires II HD: The African Kingdoms
contains a five-chapter campaign depicting Sundjata.

See also

References

Notes

  1. ISBN 0-06-270012-X
    .
  2. ISBN 1-4381-1906-2
    .
  3. ^ NIANE, Djibril Tamsir. “Histoire et Tradition Historique Du Manding.” Présence Africaine, no. 89, Présence Africaine Editions, 1974, pp. 59–74, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24349706 Archived 7 January 2022 at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ^
    ISBN 0-521-20981-1
    .
  5. ^
    ISBN 0-7734-5535-3
    .
  6. ^
    ISBN 0-521-86746-0
    .
  7. ^ ""Sundiata", Encyclopædia Britannica Online". Archived from the original on 28 March 2013. Retrieved 28 July 2012.
  8. ^ Niane p. 41.
  9. ^ 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.
  10. ^ a b Cox, George O. African Empires and Civilizations: ancient and medieval, African Heritage Studies Publishers, 1974, p. 160.
  11. ^ King, Noel (2005). Ibn Battuta in Black Africa. Markus Wiener Publishers. pp. 45–46.
  12. S2CID 182652539. Archived
    from the original on 15 April 2022. Retrieved 12 November 2023 – via cambridge.org.
  13. ^
    ISBN 1-4381-0319-0
    .
  14. ^ UNESCO, "Manden Charter, proclaimed in Kurukan Fuga", 2009. Access here Archived 12 July 2021 at the Wayback Machine. A translation of it can be found in pp. 75-77 of this publication Archived 13 July 2021 at the Wayback Machine.
  15. ^
    ISBN 1-85109-769-4
    .
  16. ^ Ed. Senghor, Léopold Sédar, Éthiopiques, Issues 21-24, Grande Imprimerie Africaine, 1980, p. 79.
  17. ISBN 0-87220-697-1
    .
  18. ISBN 978-1-4258-0102-1
  19. ISBN 0-415-34473-5
  20. JSTOR 221083
    . 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."
  21. ^ A Grammar of the Mandingo Language: With Vocabularies Archived 12 April 2024 at the Wayback Machine, by Robert Maxwell Macbrair, London 1873, p. 5.
  22. ISBN 978-0-618-47139-3
  23. ^ 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.
  24. ^ Ki-Zerbo (1998), UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. IV, p. 55.
  25. S2CID 162413528
  26. ^ "Sammis, Kathy, Focus on World History: The Era of Expanding Global Connections --1000-1500, p. 66". Archived from the original on 12 April 2024. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
  27. ^
    ISBN 0-87220-697-1
    .
  28. ^ Conrad, David C., Empires of Medieval West Africa, p. 35.
  29. ^ BBC World Service, see: See: BBC World Service, The Story of Africa, West African Kingdoms (under Origins). Archived 19 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  30. ^ Conrad, David C. (2005), Empires of Medieval West Africa, p. 44.
  31. ^ (in French) 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). Archived 29 March 2013 at the Wayback Machine
  32. ^ (in French) Delafosse, Maurice, Traditions historiques et légendaires du Soudan occidental, Traduites d'un manscrit arabe inédit par Maurice Delafosse (in Gallica). Archived 1 January 2018 at the Wayback Machine
  33. ^ 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).
    • Marie François Joseph Clozel
      ).
  34. ^ Stride, G. T., & Caroline Ifeka, Peoples and Empires of West Africa: West Africa in history, 1000-1800, Africana Pub. Corp., 1971, p. 49.
  35. ^ Fyle, Magbaily, Introduction to the History of African Civilization: Precolonial Africa, p. 61.
  36. ISBN 9987-9322-2-3
    .
  37. ISBN 0-253-21248-0
    .
  38. ISBN 9987-9322-2-3
    .
  39. ^
    ISBN 0-435-94810-5
    .
  40. ^ Stride, G. T., & Caroline Ifeka, Peoples and Empires of West Africa: West Africa in history, 1000-1800, Africana Pub. Corp., 1971, pp. 51-53.
  41. ISBN 0-521-22422-5
  42. ^ D.T. Niane, Soundjata ou L’Épopée Mandigue, Paris 1961, p. 15 note 2 (French)
  43. ^ a b Austen, Ralph. Trans-Saharan Africa in World History, Oxford University Press, 2010, p. 98.
  44. ^ Johnson, G. Wesley, The emergence of Black politics in Senegal: the struggle for power in the four communes, 1900-1920, Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace (1971), p.10
  45. ^ Research in African literatures, Volume 37. University of Texas at Austin. African and Afro-American Studies and Research Center, University of Texas at Austin, Published by African and Afro-American Studies and Research Center, University of Texas (at Austin) (2006). p.8.
  46. ISBN 0-7172-0108-2
    .
  47. ^
    ISBN 0-7619-2762-X
    .
  48. ^ a b c d e Ki-Zerbo (1998), UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. IV, pp. 55-56.
  49. Université de Dakar
    , 1987.
  50. ^ "Djibril Tamsir Niane, Histoire des Mandingues de l'Ouest: le royaume du Gabou, p. 22". Archived from the original on 15 June 2023. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
  51. ^ a b Ki-Zerbo (1998), UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. IV, p. 56.
  52. ^ Ki-Zerbo (1998), UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. IV, pp. 55-57.
  53. ^ Fage, J. D., & Oliver, Roland Anthony, The Cambridge History of Africa, p. 381. Cambridge University Press, 1975.
  54. ^ Snodgrass (2009), Encyclopedia of the Literature of Empire, p. 77.
  55. ^ a b c Ki-Zerbo (1998), UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. IV, pp. 57-58.
  56. ^ See also: Mamadou Kouyate quoted in BBC World Service, The Story of Africa, "West African Kingdoms" (under Origins). Archived 19 February 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  57. ^
    ISBN 0-582-64502-6
    .
  58. ^ Ki-Zerbo (1998), UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. IV, pp. 57-58. See also 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).
  59. ISBN 1-55876-015-6
    .
  60. ISBN 0-7146-1799-7
    .
  61. ^ a b "Ellen Snodgrass, Encyclopedia of the Literature of Empire, p. 78". Archived from the original on 12 April 2024. Retrieved 16 March 2023.
  62. ^ a b Great Britain. Naval Intelligence Division, French West Africa: The Federation, HMSO, 1943, p. 171.
  63. ^ Ronica Roth, "Mali's Boy-King: A Thirteenth-Century African Epic Becomes Digital" Archived 2 January 2018 at the Wayback Machine (in NEH): Humanities, July/August 1998, Vol. 19/Number 4.
  64. ^ University of Timbuktu: [1] Archived 19 April 2012 at the Wayback Machine
  65. ^ "Trey McElveen, Mrs. Rohlfs, "Hamlet and The Lion King: Shakespearean Influences on Modern Entertainment", British Literature, 17 April 1998 (in lionking.org)". Archived from the original on 12 May 2008. Retrieved 16 March 2012.
  66. OCLC 52520253

Bibliography

Further reading

External links

Preceded by
none
Mansa of the Mali Empire

1230–1255 		Succeeded by
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