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Title: Sundiata : Lion King of Mali by David Wisniewski ISBN: 0395764815 Publisher: Clarion Books Pub. Date: March, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 5
Rating: 5
Summary: Cheers for the Real Lion King
Comment: Anyone who wants to introduce a child (or even someone who is not so young) to the REAL glories of ancient Africa could do a lot worse than start with this book.
Beautifully illustrated, and simply written it retells the life of the great culture hero Sunjata (variously spelled Sundiata, Son-Jara or other ways depending on the language and inclination of the translator).
According to the story, Sunjata defeated the sorcerer-king Suma'oro Kante and liberated the Manding people (of modern day Guinea, Mali, plus parts of Senegal, Gambia, Cote D'Ivoire and Burkina Faso) wielding them together into a great empire in the mid 13th century. To modern Manding poeple, Sunjata is roughly equivalent in stature to Abraham Lincoln, Moses or the first Qin Emperor.
This version is very close to the original tale as told by the griots of west Africa (check out D.T. Niane's "Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali" for a traditional telling of the story or, for the really adventurous, D.W. Johnson and Fa-Digi Cissoko's scholarly rendition "Son-Jara: An African Epic"). A sung version of part of the Sunjata fassa (epic praise poem) can be found on the CD "An Be Kelen (We are One): Griot Music from Mali" also available on Amazon.
Sunjata's story includes sorcery, prodigious battles, and the triumph of nobility over gossip and envy. For modern readers, an especially powerful feature is the famous story of Sunjata overcoming childhood disability (he is crippled and -in some versions, unable to talk) to become the leader of the Malian people.
One final critical point: While Wisniewski's version is fairly faithful to the original, it should be pointed out that key secondary figures (such as Sunjata's mother Sogolon Keju, his sister Nana Triban, Fran Camara (the king of the Blacksmith clan), and above all, Sunjata's griot Bala Fasseke Kouyate) are given little mention. Thus it replicates a western emphasis on key individuals rather than stressing the importance of each of the various segments of Manding society (men, women, siblings, parents, warriors, traders, sorcerers, griots, blacksmiths, farmers)which was an essential point in the original story.
This is a beautiful, skillfully-rendered book on an exciting topic. Sunjata belongs with the Viking Sagas and the Knights of the Round Table as a key example of world literature. Do yourself a favor and buy this book.
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Title: Mansa Musa: The Lion of Mali by Khephra Burns, Leo & Diane Dillon ISBN: 0152003754 Publisher: Harcourt Pub. Date: 01 October, 2001 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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Title: The Royal Kingdoms of Ghana, Mali and Songhay: Life in Medieval Africa by Pat McKissack, Fredrick L. McKissack, Patricia C. McKissack ISBN: 0805042598 Publisher: Henry Holt & Company Pub. Date: October, 1995 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: The Hundredth Name by Shulamith Levey Oppenheim, Michael Hays ISBN: 1563976943 Publisher: Boyds Mills Pr Pub. Date: September, 1997 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: The Hatseller and the Monkeys: A West African Folktale by Baba Wague Diakite ISBN: 0590960695 Publisher: Scholastic Trade Pub. Date: March, 1999 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali (Longman African Classics) by Djibril Tamsir Niane, G. D. Pickett, D. T. Naine ISBN: 0582264758 Publisher: Addison-Wesley Pub Co Pub. Date: December, 1995 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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