D. T. Niane (1932–2021)

this caught my eye since I know the spelling Sundyata from the reggae band. I didn't know of this potent Malian unifying conqueror. this telling, an annotated transcription of a wandering annalist griot, is rich in a near mythic telling of a figure with one foot in legend. the miraculous birth and battle with a sorcerer recalled to me the book Myth of the Magus

This is the story of a 13th century west African conquerer/emperor. It is a written version of a spoken performance from 1968 by a Malian griot (a traditional African oral storyteller). The story has been handed down for hundreds of years.

Sundiata was one of many princes of a small African kingdom. He was a silent child who did not begin walking until he was about seven years old. After the king's death, Sundiata and his mother left the kingdom out of fear of the king's jealous first wife. show more Sundiata and his mother traveled around to various royal courts in west Africa until he grew up. Then he returned home to retake his kingdom from a powerful sorcerer.

There are a lot of interesting cultural aspects to this book. It is also interesting to see the similarities it has with other ancient stories and histories like the Bible, the Bhagavad Gita, and the Iliad. show less

An exceedingly approachable translation of the heroic story of Sundiata, the hero-king of the medieval Malian empire. In its scope, characterizations, and historical importance it easily stands beside [Beowulf], [The Song of Roland] and [The Ramayana] , even perhaps [The Iliad] and [The Aeneid] in world literature. And while it is a celebration of a warrior king -- he is his mother's son!

I enjoyed some aspects of the book, such as the magic/folktales. I was most interested in the first half of the book, when Sogolon (Sundiata's mother) is first introduced and the sections that talked about Sundiata's childhood. When Sogolon and her son are exiled, though, I thought the story became kind of complicated and there were too many people being introduced all at once (most of them being rather inconsequential). It was especially difficult keeping up because I was really just show more skimming through it. It was assigned reading for my Humanities class and we were only given two days to read it. I probably would have enjoyed it a bit better if I could have taken my time, but most likely I wouldn't have rated it higher than a 2.5 anyway. It's just not my type of book.

*I forgot as I was reading Sundiata, that this story was the inspiration for the Disney movie The Lion King. I'm surprised by that now because there are very, very little similarities between the two. The only thing I can think of that the two have in common is that the young prince unwillingly leaves his empire/kingdom and then returns to claim his throne a few years later when the empire is in trouble. It was kind of interesting trying to find other similarities between them that might be less obvious. For instance, I believe Rafiki (the baboon) is supposed to represent the griot (the poet-historian who tells his king's story). Honestly, I prefer the Disney version much better, and I'm sure I'm in the majority on that. show less