Necessity of Exile for Sundiata to Gain Political Legitimization

In the book Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali, Sundiata’s destiny to become king was determined before he was even born. Sundiata’s life trajectory was seemingly centered around him one day succeeding his father in becoming king, “you, perhaps, will be a king. You can do nothing about it. You, on the other hand, will be unlucky, but you can do nothing about that either. Each man finds his way already marked out for him and he can change nothing of it”.1 This passage stuck out to me particularly because it discusses how no matter what Sundiata does, he will end up being king. However, Sundiata’s destiny didn’t say whether or not it would be easy for him to become king because he had to face many real world hardships like his disability and exile in order for his destiny of becoming king to come to fruition. The story wants the reader to understand the necessity of Sundiata’s hardships, specifically his disability and exile, that led him to gain political legitimization and become the first Mansa of the Mali Empire. The question that I think is most important in this story is why was exile necessary for Sundiata to become the first Mansa of the Mali Empire? 

While destiny was a huge factor in this story and followed Sundiata wherever he went, it wasn’t the only factor that led to him becoming Mansa or king of kings. Destiny was a prevailing theme throughout the story mainly because it was foretold that Sundiata would be king. Sundiata's disability became the site of miraculous transformation, an affirmation of divine verification and reinforces how Sundiata was destined to become king. However, Sundiata would have been killed if he didn’t leave his home as his paternal-half brother’s mother Sassouma was resentful of Sundiata and his mother. Sassouma was also plotting to have Sundiata killed which makes his exile all that more important concerning his destiny. 

Sundiata’s exile may or may not have been a part of his destiny, but one thing is for sure is that he gained political legitimization and became a strong military leader as a result of his exile. His exile led to his family bouncing around different kingdoms and never staying in one place for too long. Throughout his exile, Sundiata formed relationships with people that he came across in many different kingdoms which he ended up calling on for support years later when he fought against Soumaoro. Sundiata’s exile gave him real world experiences and led him to develop qualities that contributed to him becoming a strong military leader and conqueror. According to Gomez, there are many different interpretations of Sundiata's exile which all operate around truth and fiction since it’s a story that has been communicated through oral traditions over centuries.2 These oral traditions combine aspects of truth and fiction as they’re told time and time again. We have no idea what truly happened during Sundiata’s rise to power but we do know that his exile had a huge impact on his political legitimization.

Sundiata did a good job delegating power, developing relationships and legitimizing his rule by being a strong leader. Sundiata had a lot of ambition that was tied to his destiny because his destiny was an underlying factor guiding him throughout the story. This is one of the limits of my question since you can’t really prove or disprove that Sundiata was destined to be king or whether or not his disability was an affirmation of divine verification. However, his destiny never said whether or not he would be a good king or not. This part was up to Sundiata to determine for himself. While we can’t disprove that destiny was a huge underlying factor that led to Sundiata becoming Mansa, we can say that his actions and real world experiences, especially being exiled, led him to create the Mali Empire. Sundiata didn’t just stop there as he also showed that he was willing to delegate power and distribute land to other kings when he became Mansa. Sundiata not only was destined to rule but he also earned the right to rule.

Sundiata showed that he deserved to become Mansa based on his actions, experiences and achievements in life. This also begs the question of whether hereditary rule/destiny should determine who should rule or should meritocracy determine who should rule? This question is brought up countless times after Sundiata’s death and during the succession of the Mali Empire, “the aftermath of Sunjata’s reign saw a succession struggle pitting the principle of privilege (led by royalists) versus the proponents of meritocracy (championed by the donson ton).3 Privilege in this case means the right to rule because of hereditary lineage. Privilege also correlates with destiny because who really determines if someone is destined to become king or not? That is another question we will never be able to answer because there is no way to verify if the hunter actually told Sundiata’s father the prophecy that if he married an ugly woman then she would give him a child that was destined to be king.

Therefore, how do you determine whether destiny or exile influenced Sundiata more in the story? This is another question that limits my ability to answer it because the story is based on oral traditions that have been told for centuries and have multiple interpretations which blurs the line between fact and fiction. You can’t really verify whether or not Sundiata’s destiny or exile was more influential in him becoming king. Furthermore, I’ve learned that history is told through historians and different interpretations so unless any of us witnessed Sundiata’s rise to power, then we all have to keep discussing amongst ourselves to determine what we think is the right answer. Moreover, there is no one right answer and any interpretation is valuable as there still are disagreements amongst oral traditions as to certain events in the story. Thus, we will never know what truly happened but we can only surmise what happened the best we can, given the information that we currently have. In my opinion, Sundiata needed to be exiled in order to become king but his exile was also necessary in gaining political legitimation that led him to create the Mali Empire.