Sundiata: A Culture Built on Communication

Africa is a continent that has been subjected to multiple lenses of historical research. As historians have tried to piece together and properly choreograph African history, a common issue that has occurred would be a lack of “evidence”. For many historians, evidence of any historical event or civilization would mean some form of documentation, whether it was law codes, diaries, trading laws, or other written works. However, many fail to realize that evidence of history comes from multiple different forms, and one of them that would be especially evident in Africa would be oral histories or accounts. Africa, through its rich oral history, has a created metaphorical “mess” of historical documentation, as a lot of its history is spread through speech and that speech reflects how stories, like that of Sundiata, reflect its values and institutions. This reflection of values demonstrated from Africa’s rich oral history raises the question of why it is important to ask how Africa’s oral history, like that of Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali, contributed to the values of the Malian Empire and Africa as a whole?

What is Oral History?

Spoken tradition is a common practice throughout every society as it is a way the older generation can share information with the next. Oral history also allows everyone to add value to the story as they tell it. History, for many, is a retelling of events in a sequence, and there are multiple different ways to share those sequences as whoever is telling that story has a different narrative that they are trying to get across. As stated by Mark Phillips, the telling of history is a

“cluster of overlapping and competing genres” and is very “nuanced and “flexible” and it can “accommodate the range of methods, ideologies, and rhetorics”[1].

In other words, history is a method of sharing stories and telling events in a captivating way that does not ruin its factual integrity and is able to be changed to better fit not only the audience but also the goals of the speaker. Within Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali, one of the first characters introduced is Djeli Momoudou Kouyaté. He describes himself as a griot, which has the role of counselor to the king, and as the holder and teller of all information. Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali is an epic told through the words of Kouyaté, so his vision or narrative of the events is what gives the story its nuance, and on a larger scale, Mali its culture.

A Quick Summary of Sundiata

Kouyaté goes on to recite the story of Sundiata as a child who was exiled from Niani after his father and griot’s deaths. After being exiled, Sundiata travels across the Sahara and makes multiple good impressions on the people and rulers he meets. Kouyaté then goes on to state that after some travel and time spent in Ghana, Sundiata is told that Mali has fallen under the cruel rule of Soumaoro Kanté. It is due to this news that Sundiata tracts back through the nations that he visited and gathered allies to retake Niani. After a great battle, Sundiata defeats Soumaoro, returns to Niani, and founds the Mali Empire[2].

What Information is Out There and How to Get It?

As mentioned earlier, the retelling of history, especially oral history, changes depending on who the audience is, who the speaker is, and what goals or messages the speaker is trying to get across. Kouyaté notes that one of the main reasons he chooses to share the story of Sundiata through oral means is that having a purely written history removes the “warmth of human voice”, and that warmth is seen through how Kouyaté chooses to describe certain events and characters like Sundiata being referred to as “The Lion Child” or describing how the horsemen of the king of Sibi were “extraordinary” and how the din filled sky as “tremendous”. Kouyaté’s retelling of the epic would be one that would accommodate his ideals as well as what his audience would have been most interested in. Kouyaté, being aware of this, makes a note reciting stating that “Mali keeps its secrets jealously” (Niane, 83). After this statement, Kouyaté urges his audience to go out and visit Mali and the multiple areas involved in Sundiata as many griots are trained to only give information that is necessary or worth teaching.

A major part of the culture of Mali that Kouyaté references is that Mali is a nation with a secretive culture and that in multiple ways, the only way to learn more is to go and experience the nation for what it has to offer. As stated earlier, besides the documents that have been written by historians, there is not much documentation on the empire or country that is Mali or Africa, and the primary way information is told is to ask. As stated by Luise White,

“the interview, which had never been a significant part of African history methodology, became central to the production of historical evidence”[3].

In other words, it is recognized that simply researching and collecting historical documents is not enough for understanding African, or Malian culture. A huge part of their culture is the ability to communicate with others. Therefore, to truly collect any significant data on either, a crucial step is to go there and ask questions for yourself.

Tying the knot between African History and Communication

African history is one that can not be examined through a singular lens or through any universal process. To properly study African history, one must ask themselves what they are forgetting. One of the many answers to that would be a culture of communication. One of the many reasons, and arguably one of the most important, that Sundiata was able to be victorious in the end and have as many allies as he did was because of the connections he built with those he met while in exile. Mali, and Africa as a whole, has a very secretive and hidden culture. Though not secretive to be cruel, African culture, through its use of oral history, has built its culture around communication with others and relationships that make a strong community.