Tag: College Essay

Sunjata

Form: Fiction
Genre: Epic
Country of Origin: Mali
Date: oral traditions date to around the 13th century. First written down early 20th.
Key Themes: Supernatural, Gender, Physicality, Immigration
Summary: The epic narrates the great expectations surrounding the birth of Sunjata, whose heroism has long been foretold. Foreigners come to defeat a wild buffalo that has been decimating Made lands, and their first achievement is to recognize the buffalo woman Dò Kamissa as the culprit. When Sunjata is finally born, into a world full of sorcery and treachery, he barely escapes the many plots against him and is eventually driven into exile by the jealousy of his stepbrother. Then, he liberates Manden.
Key Passages:
“She is very ugly. She’s the ‘Short Sogolon’ you’ve heard about, the one who is so very ugly.”
“This will be mentioned in Ma’an Sunjata’s praise song.” (And he was right! Though we sing, “Head-breaking Mari Jata,” it was Fakoli who broke Sumaroworo’s head.)
Some Bits to Get You Thinking:
Like most of the epics we’ve read so far, Sunjata was originally orally transmitted as a myth or legend. What stylistic elements does this epic rely on upon in order to make it easier to transmit orally?
Think of some of the tropes we’ve seen all semester long!
Supernatural elements, like the unusual circumstances surrounding Sunjata’s birth, are everywhere in this story. Not only was his mother pregnant with him for eight years, but as a child he earned the title “Lion of Manding” due to his ability to transform into a lion. As with other traditional epic heroes, Sunjata is able to perform all sorts of superhuman feats, like resurrecting the dead, interacting with animals, and defeating demon kings before conquering and ruling what will eventually become an empire.
And, of course, all sorts of special tools and weapons play important roles as well.
Consider the role women play in this text’s society. It’s important to think of Mali from a contemporary perspective – currently, the Republic of Mali offers little to no protection for women: female genital cutting/mutilation is still practiced, girls can be married with a judge’s permission as young as nine years old, husbands govern households and limit where a woman can work or live.
The contemporary Republic of Mali is governed by Islamic Sharia law, which prevents a woman from inheriting an equal or quality amount of land after her spouse’s or parent’s deaths. These facts offer a very interesting comparison to the treatment and view of women in Sunjata.
Think about the ways in which women act as divinities, mothers, assistants, and laborers for the men and how their roles are reversed throughout the text.
The chorus in ancient dramas often act as a voice of conscience or chants in order to add dynamics to the performance. In Sunjata, the naamu-sayers (nammu and its varients are translated as “I hear you”) interject as the griot recalls a tale, in order to encourage further recapitulation of the events, as a kind of line call-and-response.
It’s easy to see the similarities here and the choruses of ancient Greek tragedies – both often act as the voice of reason, offering cues and clues to the viewer as to which person or thing should be supported or condemned.

Write a Graduate-level research paper on what makes an expatriate manager successful.