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Searching for History in The Sunjata Epic: The Case of Fakoli1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2014

David C. Conrad
David C. Conrad*
Affiliation:
SUNY-Oswego
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Extract

      That is why, regarding the time between the death of one great king and the rise of another king made famous by God, If you ask whether in that intervening period there were other kings, Of course there were, But their names are not known.

Some scholars search for historical evidence in the ancient traditions preserved by bards of the Western Sudan, while other writers express doubts that these sources can contain any information of value to historians. A period markedly affected by this question is the early thirteenth century, because it was then that the Mali empire was established, and because most of the evidence for this is derived from the Sunjata tradition, which is an essential part of the repertoire of many Mande bards (also known as “griots” or, in the Mande language, jeliw). A limited amount of information on thirteenth-century Mali is available from Arabic sources, but these were written a century to a century and a half after the reign of Sunjata, and although Ibn Khaldun confirms the existence of the famous mansa and reports that he subdued the Soso (Susu, Sosso), the external writings provide no biographical details about the purported empire-builder. Conversely, some episodes in the internal oral accounts are specifically addressed to the life and times of Sunjata, with elements from other time periods—some of which are identifiable and others not—regularly creeping in and out of the narratives. Some themes are obviously mythical, while others could have a historical basis but cannot be independently confirmed. Thus, any historian addressing thirteenth-century Mali must either accept the severe limitations of the external written sources and say very little indeed about that period, or face the difficulties involved in supplementing these with references to the oral sources.

Type
Research Article
Information
History in Africa , Volume 19 , 1992 , pp. 147 - 200
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1992

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Footnotes

1.

An early draft of this paper was presented at the 1986 meeting of the African Studies Association. I am indebted to John W. Johnson for sharing unpublished versions of the Sunjata epic and to Tim Geysbeek for sharing unpublished sources from Guinea and Liberia. I am grateful to the NEH for funding research in Guinea during the summer of 1991 that produced material used here, and I want to thank David Robinson of the Association for the Publication of African Historical Sources for his work in administering my segment of that project.

References

Notes

2. Suso, Bamba in Innes, Gordon, Sunjata: Three Mandinka Versions (London, 1974), 98.Google Scholar I have taken this directly from the Mandinka text.

3. Predominant groups for the area in question that are described by the ethno-linguistic term “Mande” (or “Manding”) include the Mandenka (Malinké, Maninka), Bamana, and Jula (Dyula).

4. Levtzion, Nehemia and Hopkins, J.F.P., ed. and trans., Corpus of Early Arabic Sources for West African History (Cambridge, 1981), 333.Google Scholar

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7. Niane, Djibril Tamsir, Soundjata ou l'épopée mandingue (Paris, 1960)Google Scholar, English tr. Pickett, G.D., Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali (London, 1965).Google Scholar

8. For a bibliography of variants published up to 1986 see Johnson, John W., The Epic of Son-jara (Bloomington, 1986), 233–39.Google Scholar

9. For a discussion of the contemporary bardic approach to their art see Innes, , Sunjata, 2–33Google Scholar, and Kaabu and Fuladu: Historical Narratives of the Gambian Mandinka (London, 1976), 4–8.Google Scholar

10. That is, backward from ca. 1600. See Levtzion, Nehemia, Ancient Ghana and Mali (London, 1973), 63.Google Scholar

11. Among other famous generals of the epic are Faran or Kamajan Kamara, Faganda Kanoté, Silamakan Koita, and Madiba Konté of Sankaran. Their presence in the epic does not necessarily signify that they were actual historical contemporaries of Sunjata.

12. The basic praise name is Fa Koli (i.e., “Father Koli”), for which John Johnson collected an elaborate folk etymology: “The-One-Who-Was-Not-Tamed-By-His-Father.” Johnson, John W. ed. and tr., Son lata by Alkaw Koné (unpublished transcript recorded in Bamako, 18/12/73), 695.Google Scholar

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15. Diabaté, Massa Makan, Janjon et autres chants populaires du Mali (Paris, 1970), 43Google Scholar; Diabaté, Massa Makan, “Présentation du Sunjata faasa-version originale de Kela,” Études Maliennes 1 (1970), 77Google Scholar; Innes, , Sunjata, 271Google Scholar; Bird, Charles S. and Kendall, Martha B., “The Mande Hero,” in Bird, Charles S. and Karp, Ivan, Explorations in African Systems of Thought (Bloomington, 1980), 20–21Google Scholar, version from a performance by Yamuru and Sira Mori Diabaté at Keyla in 1972; Fanta Diabaté singing Janjon (Keyla 5/2/76); Mamady Diabaté reciting a fragment of Janjon (Keyla, 3/2/76); Nanténé Jé Kamissoko of Krina singing Janjon (Bamako, 21/7/75). While Fakoli's claim to Janjon is part of his legend, others do get praised in this song in addition to which bards have special songs for other heroes, as when Kamissoko sings her Kalata (“The Staff), dedicated to Sunjata and “Give the Spear to Tiramakan,” to the Traoré hero. Sunjata's praise song and the epic itself is locally known as Sunjata Fasa. One praise song for blacksmiths is Farakurun, Duga is sung for warriors, and Tara is for al-Hajj 'Umar. See Mohamed Conde, “La chanson et la fable dans la tradition orale,” Notre Librairie (1987): 51.Google Scholar

16. Fadian Soumanou (Bamako, 5/11/75).

17. Actes du Colloque 1977: histoire et tradition orale projet boucle du Niger (Association SCOA, Paris, 1980), 36.Google Scholar

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20. Dieterlen, , Essai, 92Google Scholar; Traoré, , “Makanta Djigui,” 24.Google Scholar

21. Levtzion, and Hopkins, , Corpus, 269-70, 334–37Google Scholar; al-Mukhtar, Ibnet al., Tarikh el-Feltach, Arabie text and French translation by O. Houdas and M. Delafosse (Paris, 1913), 56–64.Google Scholar

22. It would be contrary to the nature of these sources if confusion did not exist. In some cases the informants clearly cannot differentiate between the Fajigi and Fakoli traditons. Interviews with Jeli Yoro Kouyaté (Yonfolila, 11/9/75), Fadian Soumanou (Bamako, 5/11/75).

23. A study of the “Fajigi” tradition is in progress.

24. The evidence for identifying Sora Musa and Fakoli as one and the same is convincing because in the Gambia, “Sora Musa” is a regular praise name for Fakoli (Innes, , Sunjata, 121, 243Google Scholar). However, this does not preclude the possibility of the telescoping of two or more historical members of the kinship group into one legendary character who is credited with all their deeds. Frobenius's informant separates Fakoli and “Sirra Missa” into two generations of the same lineage. Frobenius, Leo, Dichten und Denken im Sudan, Atlantis V (Jena, 1925), 334.Google Scholar

25. Monteil, , Bambara, 270.Google Scholar

26. Levtzion, , Ancient Ghana and Mali, 65.Google Scholar

27. Seydou Camara (Bamako, 29/9/75). For Satigi Soumarouo, Fajigi was a “descendant” of Fakoli (Kabaya, 2/9/75). Mamary Kouyaté says Fajigi was the son of Sumaworo (Kolokani 9/8/75). Conrad, D., “The Role Role of Oral Artists in the History of Mali,” (Ph.D., SOAS, 1981) 2: 726, 730, 766.Google Scholar Boubou Kalé of Masala calls Fajigi a 'true son of Sogolon Kejuma,” who was also Sunjata's mother (Ngama, 3/3/76).

28. Cosentino, Donald J., “Midnight Charters: Musa Wo and Mende Myths of Chaos” in Arens, W. and Karp, Ivan, eds., Creativity of Power: Cosmology and Action in African Societies (Washington, 1989), 21–38.Google Scholar

29. The combinations “Fakoli/Sora Musa” and “Mansa Musa/Fajigi” are mentioned here for convenience of identity, and not to imply that the legendary characters occupy an independently confirmed historical niche equal to Mansa Musa. It should be kept in mind that Fakoli and Sora Musa are identifiable as basically the same legendary character, while Fajigi is similarly legendary, though at least partly based on Mansa Musa, the fourteenth-century Malian mansa described in some detail in eyewitness Arabic accounts.

30. Person, Yves, Samori: Une révolution Dyula (3 vols.: Paris, 1970) 1: 80n44.Google Scholar

31. Wright, Donald R., The Early History of Niumi: Settlement and Foundation of a Mandinka Stale on the Gambia River (Athens, Ohio, 1977), 45.Google Scholar Farias suggests that the cases in which Fakoli is said to have visited Mecca as a co-pilgrim with al-Hajj Musa might constitute an effort to dissociate the pious Mansa Musa from traditions claiming he introduced komd objects to Mande. Farias, P.F. de Moraes, “Pilgrimages to ‘Pagan’ Mecca in Mandenka Stories of Origin Reported From Mali and Guinea-Conakry” in Barber, Karin and Farias, P.F. de Moraes, eds., Discourses and Its Disguises: The Interpretation of African Oral Texts Birmingham, 1989), 160.Google Scholar

32. Jackson, Michael, “Prevented Successions: A Commentary Upon a Kuranko Narrative” in Hook, R.H., ed., Fantasy and Symbol: Studies in Anthropological Interpretation (London, 1979), 103.Google Scholar

33. Moser, Rex, “Foregrounding in the ‘Sunjata’, The Mande Epic,” (Ph.D. Indiana University, 1974) 239, 244.Google Scholar Recorded by Charles S. Bird and Massa Makan Diabaté in March, 1968; Diabaté, M.M., L'aigle et l'épervier ou La geste de Sunjata (Paris, 1975), 32, 35.Google Scholar

34. Doumbia, , “Etude,” 351Google Scholar; Innes, , Sunjata, 301.Google Scholar

35. Innes, , Sunjata, 81.Google Scholar

36. Fanta Diabaté, Janjon (Keyla, 5/2/76).

37. Vasi Kamara (Fombadu, Guinea, 21/12/75). Compare Bamba Suso's description of Sunjata's commander Kurang Karang Kama Fofana coming with “iron shoes” (Innes, , Sunjata, 63Google Scholar).

38. For a discussion of the pattern followed by the Mande hero in his search for occult power see Bird and Kendall, “The Mande Hero,” 20.

39. Wright, Donald R., Oral Traditions from the Gambia 1: Mandinka Griots (Athens, Ohio, 1979), 31Google Scholar, informant Unus Jata of Berending. Sunjata's invitation to let Fakoli wash in the “secret waters” of the boliw is related to Fakoli's blacksmith Ikòmò/sorcerer identity. In this case the opaqueness of a reference to the non-Islamic belief system could be deliberate because one of Wright's interviews with Jata was held in the compound of the local imam. Among Mande peoples the Bamana are much more in touch with traditional spirit ritual, and when their oral traditionists speak of former kings and heroes of eighteenth-century Segu “watering” or “washing” the boliw, this is a euphemism for the spilling of blood over these spiritual objects. After great battles, captured chiefs or formidable warriors were executed over the most important of them, so that their blood could augment the power of the boliw which were very fearful, dangerous objects sometimes representing an entire city state, and thought to control the fortunes of their possessors. Any “secret water” associated with a boli would be the blood of a sacrificial victim, either before or after an important battle, and this might explain the curious circumstance in this variant where Sora Musa is taken to the boliw “to wash in the secret waters” after killing Sumaworo. Earlier, less diluted versions related by Unus Jata's distant ancestors might well have described a sacrifice.

40. Shakespeare, William, King Richard The Third, I, 1.Google Scholar

41. Lassa Camara (Funebugu, 5/3/76); Boubou Kalé (Ngama, 3/3/76); Fanyama Diabaté (Bamako, 21/10/75).

42. Diabaté, , Janjon, 43.Google Scholar

43. Miller, Joseph C., ed., The African Past Speaks: Essays on Oral Tradition and History (Folkstone, 1980), 4–12.Google Scholar To avoid repetition, I use the terms “cliché” and “motif” synonymously.

44. Gordon Innes favors a metaphorical interpretation, stressing Fakoli's supernatural powers (Sunjata, 118).

45. Quoted in McNaughton, Patrick, The Mande Blacksmiths: Knowledge, Power, and Art in West Africa (Bloomington, 1988), 109.Google Scholar

46. The term “fraternity” is preferred by Kassim Koné in “The Bamana and the Komo: Some Secrets Behind the Mask,” paper presented at the annual meeting of the African Studies Association, St.Louis, 1991.

47. McNaughton, , Mande Blacksmiths, 137.Google Scholar

48. See Brett-Smith, Sarah, “Speech Made Visible: The Irregular as a System of Meaning,” Empirical Studies of the Arts 2 (1984), 127–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

49. Diabaté, M.M., Janjon, 45Google Scholar; Bird, and Kendall, , “The Mande Hero,” 19Google Scholar; McNaughton, , Mande Blacksmiths, 136–37Google Scholar; Mamady Diabaté (Keyla, 3/2/76); Ly-Tall, Madina, Camara, Seydou and Diouara, Bouna, tr. and eds., L'histoire du Mande d'après Jeli Kanku Modi Jabaté de Kéla (Paris, 1987), 51.Google Scholar The core elements in testimonies by various bards of the Diabaté family of Keyla tend, logically enough, to be quite uniform, so that in references like this one where more than one bard is cited from the same village (Mamady Diabaté and Ly-Tall's informant), the citations should not carry the weight of two entirely separate pieces of evidence.

50. Cissé, Youssouf Tata and Kamissoko, Wâ, La grande geste du Mali: des origines à la fondation de l'empire (Paris, 1988), 171.Google Scholar Y. T. Cissé claims that Fakoli was a kômô priest (ibid., 173n34).

51. Banbera, Tayiru in David, C. Conrad, A State of Intrigue: The Bamana Segu Epic According to Tayiru Banbera (Oxford, 1990), 241Google Scholar, ll. 5276-99; Sissoko Kabiné in Kesteioot, Lilyan, Da Monzon de Segou: épopée bambara (2 vols.: Paris, 1972), 1: 53–54.Google Scholar

52. Ly-Tall, , Histoire, 51.Google Scholar

53. Interviews with Yoro Jan Diakité (Samanyana, 11/6/84) and Idrissa Diakité (Bamako, 15/7/84). Writing of Mali in 1337-38, al-'Umari noted the occult significance of crocodiles (Levtzion and Hopkins, Corpus, 272), and their intense ritual significance is evident throughout Mande oral tradition: See Fakoli's own ceremonial use of a crocodile in Innes, , Sunjata, 221–23Google Scholar, and other rituals described by Koré, Tamura in Monteil, Bambara, 75Google Scholar; Kamara, Sory in Dumestre, Gérard, La geste de Ségou (Paris, 1979), 239-41Google Scholar; Koné, Bakoroba in Bird, Charles, “Bambara Oral Prose and Verse Narratives” in Dorson, Richard M., ed., African Folklore (Bloomington, 1972), 472–74Google Scholar; Gorké in Kesteioot, , Da Monzon, 4: 59.Google Scholar

54. Diabaté, , Janjon, 45Google Scholar; McNaughton, , Mande Blacksmiths, 137Google Scholar; Mamady Diabaté at Keyla, 3/2/76. See also an early variant where Sunjata's chiefs, including Fakoli, are dressed in peaux de biche: Fx. de Zeltner, , Contes du Sénégal et du Niger (Paris, 1913), 30.Google Scholar In two other versions that are “early” relative to most available to us, the mythical bonnet draped with 300 heads “de tout ce qui a vie” is part of the royal apparel tried on by Sunjata and his step-brother Dankaran Tuman to see who will inherit their father's power. This introduces the possibility that as the discourse evolved, the motif was borrowed for Fakoli from the Sunjata episode or vice versa. Quiquandon, F., “Histoire de la puissance Mandingue d'après la légende et la tradition,” Bulletin de la Société de Géographie de Bordeaux 2/15 (1892): 307–08Google Scholar; Lanrezac, H., “Légendes soudanaises,” Bulletin de la Société de Géographie commerciale de Paris 29 (1907), 610.Google Scholar

55. Mamady Diabaté at Keyla, 3/2/76. For Youssouf Cisse an eagle is part of Fakoli's metaphor. In his translation of Wâ Kamissoko's Janjon he inserts “l'aigle chasseur” into lines of the French where it is not present in the Bamana (Empire 1975, 141–43Google Scholar). The “eagle hunter” phrase also appears in a composite story of Sunjata based partly on the Kamissoko/Cisse SCOA texts and presumably drawn from them, not from a different variant: Ba, Adam Konare, Sunjata: le fondateur de l'empire du Mali, (Dakar, 1983), 59.Google Scholar Elsewhere Cisse says Fakoli is the name of a “great mythical eagle” also called Koulandjan which he identifies as the totem of the blow (Grande geste, 175). I do not find the eagle connected to Fakoli anywhere else, including the available lists of totems for the bla kinship groups. Even if it is a totem (tné), and/or an obscure praise name for Fakoli, Farias gives far too much weight to the “mythical eagle” as one of two “origin figures” (the other, as he says, “a well-known character from the Sunjata epic”) that he sees as telescoped together to make up Fakoli's total image (“Pilgrimages,” 159). In northern Guinea, Fakoli “the night genie” is praised as an owl (Alhaji Oumar Kamara at Kankan, 1984):

Nyama Nyanké stood up.

Sorcerer's trousers,

Old scorched shirt of Mande,

Heavy rain that cleans the river,

Fakoli suddenly stood up. Other women gave birth to sorcerers,

His mother gave birth to an owl.

56. Bird, /Kendall, , “Mande Hero,” 19.Google Scholar

57. For a discussion of anti-social behavior in heroes see Cosentino, “Midnight Charters.”

58. Innes, , Sunjata, 53.Google Scholar

59. The etymologies refer variously to either “Sunjata,” or “Keita.” Zeltner, , Contes, 13–14Google Scholar; Innes, , Sunjata, 47–48Google Scholar; Sidibe, B.K., ed., Sunjata (Banjul, 1980), 17Google Scholar; Jackson, “Prevented Successions,” 103; Jeli Baba Sissoko (Bamako, 24/7/75) copied from a recording made previously by the Insitut des Sciences Humaines, in Conrad, “Role,” 705. I am grateful to the Institut des Sciences Humaines in Bamako for permission to copy the Sissoko version, and to Cheick Umar Mara for his help. This is the same bard whose name Dumestre spells with a “C.” In Arnaud's text “Soudiata” [sic] is “the plunderer”: Robert Arnaud, “L'Islam et la politique musulmane française en Afrique Occidentale Française, suivi de la singulière légende des Soninké,” tirage à part du Comité de l'Afrique française (Paris, 1911), 168.

60. Levtzion, and Hopkins, , Corpus, 295, 333, 416Google Scholar; Levtzion, , Ancient Ghana and Mali, 230.Google Scholar

61. Encyclopaedia of Islam, 4: 173.Google Scholar

62. Zeltner, , Contes, 14.Google Scholar

63. Cissoko, Jeli Baba in Dumestre, Geste, 117Google Scholar; Kabiné, Sissoko in Kesteioot, Da Monzon, 3: 7Google Scholar; Seydou Dramé in Kesteioot, Lilyan, “Un épisode de l'épopée bambara de Ségou: Bakari Dian et Bilissi,” BIFAN 35B (1973): 888Google Scholar; Conrad, , State, 269-72, 11. 6099–6191.Google Scholar

64. Alhaji Oumar Kamara (Kankan, 1984), (“wrinkle-skinned”); Mamadi Diabaté (Kouroussa, ca. 1970), (“short and stocky”). The only literal connection between Fakoli and dwarves is in a variant where the hero kills a multi-headed dwarf that troubles Sunjata's sleep, which in context appears to be a metaphorical allusion to Fakoli's role in pacifying rebellious chiefs during the unification of Mali. Frobenius, , Dichten, 330–31.Google Scholar

65. Sissoko, Jeli Baba in Conrad, , “Role” 2: 702.Google Scholar

66. Innes, , Sunjata, 295Google Scholar; Bird, and Kendall, , “Mande Hero,” 21Google Scholar; Sissoko, Jeli Baba in Conrad, , “Role” II, 702Google Scholar; Fadian Soumanou (Bamako, 5/11/75); Mamadi Diabaté (Kissidougou, ca. 1970); Alhaji Oumar Kamara (Kankan, 1984).

67. Diabaté, M.M., Janjon, 43–52.Google Scholar See also the discussion of a similar variant from Keyla in Bird, and Kendall, , “Mande Hero,” 20–21.Google Scholar Dembo Kanute gives a detailed description of Fakoli's battle with Jibrila, in Innes, , Sunjata, 297–301.Google Scholar

68. Alhaji Oumar Kamara (Kankan, 1984); Mamadi Diabaté of Kouroussa (Kissidougou, ca. 1970); Innes, , Sunjata, 299Google Scholar; Doumbia, , “Etude,” 345.Google Scholar Y.T. Cisse remarks that Fakoli was scarcely 1.5 meters (ca.4'10”) tall, but he does not cite a source for this surprisingly precise measurement (Cissé and Kamissoko, Grande geste, 175n38).

69. Fanta Diabate (Keyla, 5/2/76).

70. Sidibé, , “Soundiata,” 45–46.Google Scholar The material from Sidibé's informant appears to derive from a variant of Janjon. The informant referred to “Bla” (or “Bila”), which is one of Fakoli's praise names related to the bla groups discussed below.

71. Seydou Camara of Kabaya (Bamako 29/9/75) in Conrad, “Role” 2: 738.

72. Mamadi Diabaté of Kouroussa (Kissidougou, ca. 1970). That these praises originated as references to Fakoli's heroics, and contain a historical element is supported by al-cUmari's report that in the reign of Mansa Sulayman (ca. 1341-60), “[w]henever a hero…adds to the list of his expolits the king gives him a pair of trousers, and the greater the number of a knight's exploits the bigger the size of his trousers” (Levitzion, and Hopkins, , Corpus 265Google Scholar). Gordon Laing provided a link between this custom and Fakoli's praises, observing that the expression “large trousers” is synonymous with “a great man” Laing, A. G., Travels in the Timanee, Kooranko, and Solima Countries (London, 1825).Google Scholar

73. Vansina, Jan, Art History in Africa (London, 1984), 4.Google Scholar

74. Mamadi Diabaté of Kouroussa.

75. Fadian Soumanou, (Bamako, 5/11/75).

76. Fadian Soumanou. When asked what he meant by bla here, Soumanou said “Sissoko, Sissoko,” i.e., one of the patronymics with which Fakoli is most often identified.

77. Farias believes that a consequence of the Soso defeat by Sunjata was the loss of political status by the blacksmiths (“Pilgrimages,” 155).

78. Fadian Soumanou; Mamary Kouyaté (Kolokani, 19-21/8/75) in Conrad, , “Role” 2: 613.Google Scholar

79. Nantené Jé Kamissoko (Bamako, 21/7/75). Kele Monson Diabaté also mentions Tanan Mansa Konkon, in a praise song to Sunjata (Diabaté, M.M., Janjon, 34Google Scholar). Wâ Kamissoko (from the same bardic family at Krina as Nanténé Jé) identifies Tanan Mansa Konkon as a chief of Krina who held major power in Mande before Sunjata's time (Cisse, and Kamissoko, , Grande geste, 175–77Google Scholar).

80. Dieterlen, , “Myth et organisation,” 39–40Google Scholar; “Mande Creation Myth,” 128; Meillassoux, Claude, “Les cérémonies septennales du kamablô de Kaaba (Mali): (512 Avril 1968),” Journal de la Société des Africanistes 38 (1968), 173–83CrossRefGoogle Scholar, followed in the same issue by Dieterlen, , “Note complémentaire sur le sanctuaire de Kaaba,” 185–88.Google Scholar

81. Meillassoux, , “Cérémonies,” 175Google Scholar; Dieterlen, , “Myth et organisation,” 39Google Scholar and “Mande Creation Myth,” 124. At present, the best guess at a historical identity for the “Mansa Sama” of this tradition appears to be Mansa Sulayman (ca. 1341-60), but Niane's belief that the original hut at Kaaba was actually built in his time seems unrealistically early (Leynaud, quoted by Meillassoux cites evidence for the early eighteenth century). Niane himself refers to Kangaba as “le dernier refuge des Empereurs de Mali au XVIIe siècle.” Niane, Djibril Tamsir, “Recherches sur l'empire du Mali au moyen age,” Recherches Africaines 1-4 (1959): 36–37.Google Scholar

82. For a more comprehensive discussion of this see Green, Kathryn L., “‘Mande Kaba,’ The Capital of Mali: A Recent Invention?” HA 18 (1991): 127–35.Google Scholar

83. Meillassoux, , “Cérémonies,” 179.Google Scholar

84. Dieterlen, , “Note complémentaire,” 185.Google Scholar

85. Fadian Soumanou (Bamako, 5/11/75). He calls it “Kaaba blon kononkono” (“waiting hall of Kaaba”). Soumanou is the only one I have heard specifically associate the roof-raising blon with the one in Kaaba, so it should not be taken as strong evidence that he or any other bards are thinking of the Kaaba kama blon ritual when they sing Janjon or tell the roof-raising story.

86. Meillassoux, , “Cérémonies,” 173, 175, 181Google Scholar; Dieterlen, , “Myth,” 63.Google Scholar

87. I want to make it clear that I am not saying the griots at Kaaba shout bla when the new roof is put in place (though I have seen the kama blon I have not witnessed the ceremony). I am aware of this element only in the narratives and songs.

88. Ba Sumana Sissoko in Johnson, 270.

89. Wright, , Oral Traditions, 1: 31Google Scholar; a possibly related thematic obscurity has Fakoli insisting to Sumaworo that he must wash instead of embarking on an evil journey (Jeli Baba Sissoko in Conrad, “Role” 2: 703), though equally relevant in this case are the Muslim ablutions before prayer. In a French transcript of the bard Tiémoko Koné's version of the epic, he speaks of “Balla the warrior” (most likely Bila Fakoli), saying “[1]e feu qu'il alluma autrefois au Manding ne s'éteignit que par le célèbre eau de Kangaba,” in Lassana Doucoure, ed. and tr., Soundiata, Institut des Sciences Humaines du Mali (recorded at Mourdiah, November 1967), 280.

90. Actes du Colloque (1980), 12.Google Scholar

91. Farias, , “Pilgrimages,” 155.Google Scholar

92. In the early eighteenth century at least, Biton Kulubali's resting place (as with any other extremely powerful person) would have been a carefully-guarded secret so his remains could not be used for occult purposes. Such material carried spiritual significance similar to that of saints' bones and other ‘holy relics’ of the Christian Middle Ages, e.g., those placed in the hilts of knights' swords (see, e.g., Le Chanson de Roland). It is quite possible that some of the most powerful boliw of the Kulubali and Jara dynasties contained bone, hair, etc. from chiefly remains. For more on this see note 39 above and Conrad, State, 189n3600.

93. This guardianship probably accounts for Monteil's remark that the supreme chief of the blow was a Kamara (“Empires,” 316).

94. Fadian Soumanou (Bamako, 5/7/75).

95. Jeli Manga Sissoko (Kolokani, 13/8/75) in Conrad, “Role” 2: 806.

96. Niane, , Sundiata, 42Google Scholar (son of Sumaworo's sister Kassia); Diabaté, Massa Makan, Kala Jata (Bamako, 1970), 69Google Scholar (son of Kankuba); Diabaté, M.M., “Présentation,” 77Google Scholar; Diabaté, M.M., Janjon, 43Google Scholar; Innes, , Sunjata, 271–77Google Scholar (son of Kumba Kante); Jeli Manga Sissoko at Kolokani, 13/8/75 (son of Kankoba of the Kante clan, also called Sissoko) in Conrad, “Role” 2: 718; Fadian Soumanou at Bamako, 5/11/75 (son of Kangoba Kanté).

97. Sidibé, Mamby, “Soundiata Keita, héros historique et légendaire, empereur du Manding,” Notes Africaines 82 (1959), 45Google Scholar; Humblot, P., “Episodes de la légende de Soundiata,” Notes Africaines, 52 (1951), 113n2Google Scholar; Monteil, Charles, “Les empires du Mali,” Bulletin du Comité d'études historiques et scientifiques de l'Afrique Occidentale Française 12 (1929): 355Google Scholar; Johnson, , Epic of Son-Jara, 173Google Scholar; Innes, , Sunjata, 275–77Google Scholar; Ly-Tall, , Histoire, 58Google Scholar; Niane, , Sundiata, 42–43Google Scholar; Fadian Soumanou (Bamako, 5/11/75).

98. For a non-Mande variant of the femme fatale motif see Haie, Thomas A., Scribe, Griot and Novelist: Narrative Interpreters of the Songhay Empire (Gainesville, 1990), 116, 273-75.Google Scholar

99. Cissé, , Empire, 162–63.Google Scholar In the Bamana Segu epic we are told: “If you see men fighting, it is women who make us fight” (Conrad, , State, ll. 6790–91Google Scholar). This attitude is repeatedly expressed in the epics of both Sunjata and Bamana Segu by the cliché of one protagonist demanding to marry the daughter of the other, with the subsequant refusal being the cause of war between them: Monteil, “Les empires,” 355 (Sunjata vs. Sumaworo); Conrad, , State, ll. 3872–3898Google Scholar (Fama Da vs. Samanyana Basi). The “femme fatale” usually functions as a “guide figure” in the sense of providing the magic ring, golden key, or secret formula required for the hero/heroine's success. In the western sudanic context she can also be earth mother, symbol of fecundity, both destroyer and provider. At the same time she is a sorceress, and the link between sorceress and “femme fatale” deserves a separate study. See Stephen Bulman, “The Buffalo-Woman Tale: Political Imperatives and Narrative Constraints in the Sunjata Epic” in Barber, /Farias, , Discourse, 171–88.Google Scholar

100. Fanyama Diabaté (Bamako, 21/10/75); Vidal, J., “La légende officielle de Soundiata fondateur de l'empire manding,” BCEHSAOF, 7 (1924), 326Google Scholar; Cisse, , Empire, 105–180Google Scholar; Niane, , Sundiata, 64Google Scholar; Kesteioot, Lilyan, Da Monzon de Segou: épopée bambara (4 vols.: Paris, 1972), 1:33–58; 2:34-60.Google Scholar See also the lesser-known incident where Sèkurè Nyuma betrays her own father, Jon Sèkurè, for Sunjata's grandson, Mamadi, Kon, in Ly-Tall, Histoire, 74–75.Google Scholar

101. Doumbia, , “Etude,” 349Google Scholar; Johnson, John W., The Epic of Sun-Jata According to Magan Sisòkò (Bloomington, 1979), 2:146, 155Google Scholar; Sidibé, , “Soundiata,” 45Google Scholar; Humblot, , “Episodes,” 113n2Google Scholar; Innes, , Sunjata, 275–77Google Scholar; Monteil, , “Empires,” 355Google Scholar; Niane, , Sundiata, 42–3Google Scholar; Diabaté, M.M., Janjon, 43Google Scholar; Fadian Soumanou (Bamako, 5/11/75). For incest in Mande tradition see Traore, , “Makanta Djigui,” 24Google Scholar and Camara, Seydou in Conrad, , “Role” 2: 761.Google Scholar

102. Cisse, and Kamissoko, , Grande geste, 195.Google Scholar Here Sumaworo is said to be a descendant of both the Koroma and the Kante of Soso.

103. Conrad, David C., “Oral Sources on Links Between Great States,” HA 11 (1984), 39–41.Google Scholar

104. Delafosse, , “Traditions,” 300.Google Scholar

105. Levtzion, and Hopkins, , Corpus, 333.Google Scholar

106. For a discussion of this and related issues see Kopytoff's, Igor “The Internal African Frontier” in Kopytoff, Igor, ed., The African Frontier: The Reproduction of Traditional African Societies (Bloomington, 1987), 3–78.Google Scholar

107. Some informants say Sumaworo banished Fakoli: Jabaté, Kanku Madi in Ly-Tall, , Histoire, 58Google Scholar; Sisòkò, Magan in Johnson, , Sun-Jata II, 156.Google Scholar

108. After Mansa Kara Kamara's wife helps Fakoli murder her husband, Fakoli has her killed so she will not also betray him (Cissé, , Empire, 169–80Google Scholar); the quotation is from Tayiru Banbera, whose Fama Da executes a slave girl who had helped Da by betraying Sam any an a Basi (Conrad, , State, ll. 5912–59Google Scholar).

109. Niane, , Sundiata, 42, 61.Google Scholar

110. Ly-Tall, , Histoire, 58Google Scholar; Doumbia, , “Etude,” 349.Google Scholar Internal evidence suggests that some of the Doumbia texts (collected before 1936) are from the same chain of transmission participated in by the bard Wâ Kamissoko of Krina who seems concerned with the apparent paradox of Fakoli's Soso/Mande background: at one point in Kamissoko's discourse Fakoli says he is quitting Sumaworo's army “pour regagner le Manden, car si j'arrivais même aujourd'hui dans ce pays, on m'appelerait 'Fakoli, du Manden'.” Elsewhere Kamissoko justifies the “Manden Fakoli” title by explaining that Fakoli's male ancestors were chiefs of Solon, which is in Mande (Cisse, and Kamissoko, , Grande geste, 173, 169Google Scholar).

111. Oral traditionists of the Mande heartland consistently characterize Sunjata's brother Manding Mori (or Bori) as hot-headed.

112. Mamadi Diabaté of Kouroussa (Kissidougou, ca. 1970). In this variant's expanded view of the subsequent episode, Fakoli's wife assumes increased signficance as a Traoré and as a formidable sorceress in her own right, thus achieving a level of power occupied by the Buffalo Woman of an early episode of the epic and by Sunjata's mother Sogolon Kejugu.

113. It also suggests that whereas Mande savants always withhold some information, they do not all withhold the same information. It is possible for arcane references from one bard to be explained by another. In this case, a text from Kouroussa, Guinea translated in 1991 helps to explain the arcane reference to Fakoli's big and small wars, quoted at the beginning of this section. That line was recorded at Kolokani, Mali in 1975.

114. Innes, , Sunjata, 81.Google Scholar Puzzled by the reference to Fakoli as a king of Mande, Innes suggests bardic confusion of Sora Musa with Mansa Musa (127n907).

115. Ibid. In central Mande the name rendered here as “Jonding” would be transcribed “Jonden” which translates literally as “slave child.” The name Daabo (also Darbo) is one that is regularly associated with the bla clans (see note 189 below).

116. Kopytoff, , “Internal African Frontier,” 53.Google Scholar

117. Innes, , Sunjata, 81.Google Scholar

118. Sidibe, , “Soundiata,” 46.Google Scholar

119. Innes, , Sunjata, 281.Google Scholar

120. Many traditionists would take exception, if only to promote their own patrons' ancestry. Emile Leynaud and Youssouf Cisse have determined to their satisfaction that Tiramakan Traoré was not of the old Traoré stock, his people having arrived in the upper Niger valley only a few generations before the beginning of Sunjata's conquests; it will be interesting to compare this aspect of his background with Fakoli's. Leynaud and Cisse mention that “outre les récits légendaires… certaines informations recueillies sur le terrain laissent penser que le mythe et la légende rejoignent l'histoire.” One wishes they had given more information on how they reached their conclusions. Paysans Malinke du Haul Niger (Tradition et développement rural en Afrique Soudanaise) (Bamako, 1978), 134, 147–49.Google Scholar

121. Mamadi Diabaté of Kouroussa (Kissidougou, ca. 1970).

122. Equally important at this phase of developments was Tiramakan Traoré, the subject of a projected sequel to this article.

123. Arnaud, , “Islam,” 172.Google Scholar

124. Zeltner, , Contes, 30.Google Scholar Compare Zeltner's second variant, by Habibou Sissoko, a Khassonke bard living at Nioro, far from the Mande heartland, which would partially account for his text's interesting distortions, e.g., Fakoli is not readily identifiable among Sunjata's generals, the closest being “Sounfara Moussa” the only one which might remotely derive from Fakoli's name Musa Sissoko (41).

125. Monteil, , “Empires,” 352–53.Google Scholar Monteil felt this had no historical value.

126. Innes, , Sunjata, 81.Google Scholar

127. Johnson, , Sun-Jata II, 184Google Scholar; Son-Jara, 118.

128. Cissé, , L'empire (1975), 5.Google Scholar

129. Kamissoko, Nanténé Jé, Janjon (Bamako, 21/7/75).Google Scholar

130. Humblot, P., “Du nom propre et des appellations chez les Malinké des vallées du Niandan et du Milo (Guiñeé française),” BCEHSAOF (1918), 531Google Scholar, and idem., “Episodes,” 113; Monteil, , Bambara, 270Google Scholar; Sidibe, , “Soundiata,” 45Google Scholar; Niane, , Sundiata, 78Google Scholar; Kamissoko, Nanténé Jé, Janjon (Bamako, 21/7/75)Google Scholar; Boubou Kalé (Ngama, 3/3/76); Lassa Camara (Funébugu, 5/3/76). Additional clan names consistently mentioned by the Malian bards are Bagayoko, Sineyoko, and Kamissoko. Other names might be added at random depending on the occasion. The Boubou Kalé recitation included seven of the most frequently heard names, but on the night I heard him he added “Dow” (and made up an etymology on the spot to justify it), in honor of my host Musa Dow, at that time chef d'arrondissement stationed at Tamani. Similarly, Lassa Camara added “Camara” to his list because he was responding to a question about that clan's historical occupations.

131. Innes, , Sunjata, 69, 303Google Scholar; Cissoko, Sékéne Mody and Kaoussa, Sambou, Recueil des traditions orales des Mandingues de Gambie et de Casamance (Niamey, 1969), 153–59Google Scholar (informant Timintan Camara, chief of the village of Ndoungué Sine, several kilometers southwest of Kolibantan); Wright, , Early History, 45.Google Scholar Wright found that seven Western Mandinka clans trace their origin to Sora Musa.

132. Valase Kromah (Macenta, Guinea, 27/8/84); Bakari Kromah (Macenta, Guinea 2/1/85), recorded by Mohammed Kromah and Tim Geysbeek; Vasi Kamara (Fombadu, Liberia, 21/12/85), recorded/translated by Jobba Kamara; Fata Bakari Kromah (Macenta, Guinea, 28/10/90) and Sila Nani Kamara (Douama-Sobala, Guinea, 29/10/90), collected/translated by Tim Geysbeek and Jobba Kamara.

133. Humblot, , “Du nom propre,” 528.Google Scholar

134. Monteil, , “Empires,” 316n2.Google Scholar

135. Niane, , Sundiata, 78.Google Scholar This should be considered in future discussions of matrilineal succession in the periods immediately preceding and following the reign of Mansa Musa. See Bell, Nawal, “The Age of Mansa Musa of Mali: Problems in Succession and Chronology,” IJAHS 5 (1972): 221–34Google Scholar, and Levtzion, Nehemia, “The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Century Kings of Mali,” JAH 4 (1963): 341–53CrossRefGoogle Scholar

136. Arnaud, , “Islam,” 172Google Scholar (Kéléa Moussa Sissoro); Cissé, , Empire, 39Google Scholar; Cissé, and Kamissoko, , Grande geste, 203Google Scholar; Niane, , Sundiata, 78Google Scholar; Johnson, John W., ed. and tr., Sunjata by Sissoko, Ba Sumana (unpublished transcript recorded in Bamako, 16/12/73), 270Google Scholar; Boubou Kalé (Ngama, 3/3/76).

137. Frobenius, , Dichten, 333–34.Google Scholar

138. Traoré, Koné, Kamara, Kuruma, Magasuba, Dansuba, Dagnogo, Kulibali, Jara, Danté, Dugonno, Sogoré, Diallo, Diakité, Sidibé, Sangaré. Dieterlen, Germaine, “Myth et organisation sociale au Soudan française,” Journal de la Société des Africanistes 25 (1955) 41CrossRefGoogle Scholar, idem., “The Mande Creation Myth,” Africa 27 (1957): 125.

139. See Bazin, Jean, “Guerre et servitude à Ségou” in Meillassoux, Claude, ed., L'esclavage en Afrique précoloniale (Paris, 1975), 135–81.Google Scholar

140. Arnaud, , “Islam,” 167Google Scholar; Conrad, , “Oral Sources,” 39–41.Google Scholar

141. Conrad, , State, 98–99n1344.Google Scholar

142. Cissé, , Empire, 97Google Scholar; Cissé, and Kamissoko, , Grande geste, 219.Google Scholar

143. Ly-Tall, , Histoire, 21Google Scholar; Johnson, , Son-Jara, 107Google Scholar; Diabaté, , Aigle, 86Google Scholar (English translation in Moser, , Foregrounding, 322Google Scholar); Boubou Kalé (Ngama, 3/3/76). A text collected in the region of Jenne sometime before 1918 lists sixteen clans said to have been allied with Sumaworo against Sunjata, which is of interest as either a distorted variant, or as possible further support for the argument that early Mande chiefs including Fakoli later switched allegiance to Sunjata (Humblot, , “Du nom propre,” 528n2Google Scholar). Compare Zeltner, , Contes, 13Google Scholar, where the child Sunjata is followed around by sixteen beggars and children.

144. Sissoko, Jeli Manga in Conrad, , “Role” 2: 805–06.Google Scholar Compare the references to “arrow-shooting-music” in Johnson, , Sun-Jata I, 42.Google Scholar

145. Labouret, H., “Les Manding et leur langue,” BCEHSAOF 18(1934), 105Google Scholar; Ly-Tall, , Histoire, 21, 51.Google Scholar

146. Levtzion, and Hopkins, , Corpus, 291Google Scholar

147. Sidibé, , “Soundiata,” 46Google Scholar; Zeltner, , Contes, 32Google Scholar; Cissé, , Empire (1976), 213Google Scholar; Innes, , Sunjata, 67, 79Google Scholar (Bamba Suso), 263, 305-07 (Dembo Kanute); Johnson, , Son-Jara, 174–75Google Scholar, and Sun-Jata II, 185; Niane, , Sundiata, 64Google Scholar; Mamary Kouyate (Kolokani, 16/8/75); see also the binyew in McNaughton, Mande Blacksmiths, 136–37.Google Scholar

148. Mamady Diabaté (Keyla, 3/2/76); Fanta Diabaté (Keyla, 5/2/76). Fakoli is also said to have wielded a magic ax (Mamadi Diabaté of Kouroussa), and a spear called Tuluku Muluku, brought from Mecca by his father Jinna Musa (Innes, , Sunjata, 151, 209Google Scholar; Johnson, Ba Sumana Sissoko'sSunjata, 270Google Scholar). An early variant describes the lance as one that would return to the thrower after inflicting a wound from which blood would issue through nine different holes. The same text says Fakoli carried nine arrows, each of which would kill nine people before returning itself to his quiver (Doumbia, , “Etude,” 350Google Scholar). Elsewhere it is recalled that a royal lance carried by the chief of slaves was a Mande insignia of power (Cissoko, and Sambou, , Recueil des traditions, 179Google Scholar).

149. Johnson, , Son-Jara, 192–93.Google Scholar

150. Monteil, , “Empires,” 316Google Scholar; Cissé, and Kamissoko, , Grande geste, 385.Google Scholar Sunjata is said to be of Konaté lineage, as well as Keita. The Jara and Kulubali lineages of the Bamana are also designated masarew.

151. Frobenius, , Dichten, 334Google Scholar; Humblot, , “Du nom propre,” 528Google Scholar; Dieterlen, , “Mande Creation Myth,” 125.Google Scholar The frequent references to a Kamara branch in these lists seems to conflict with Leynaud and Cisse's view that the chiefly Kamara stock came with the Keita, (Paysans Malinke, 148)Google Scholar, unless the references are to different Kamara lineages.

152. Madani, Gawlo in Actes du Colloque, 12Google Scholar; Monteil, , “Empires,” 316Google Scholar; Nanténé Jé Kamissoko (Bamako, 21/7/75); Mamady Diabaté (Keyla, 3/2/76); Boubou Kalé (Ngama, 3/25/76). Lists of bla clans that I recorded frequently contain distortions similar to some barely recognizable bla names in Monteil's list, which are either transciption distortions or regional variations, as with “Kamayoro” (probably a variant of Kamissoko), but it also appears that some bla names may have dropped out of the lists in recent generations, e.g., “Bibanban,” which Monteil says is a branch of the Kamara, (Empires, 316).Google Scholar Also, compare Monteil's “Noya” to Dembo Kanute's “Nooya” (Innes, , Sunjata, 267Google Scholar). It should be kept in mind that bards will add names to any recital to honor a guest in the audience.

153. Diabaté, MamariJanjon (Keyla, 3/2/76)Google Scholar; Kamissoko, Nanténé Jé, Janjon (Bamako, 21/7/75)Google Scholar; Satigi Soumarouo (he said “Fa Bilan”) and Camara, Seydou in Conrad, , “Role,” 2: 721, 744–46.Google Scholar Banna Kanuté incorporates lines that are probably from a variant of Janjon into his narrative in Innes, , Sunjata, 151.Google Scholar Kanuté's “Kiliya Musa” and “Nooya Musa” could represent different generations of “Soora” ancestors, or they could be praise names for Fakoli. Other names recited by Kanuté in much the same manner that they appear in variants of Janjon, e.g., “Bula Wuruwuru” suggest distortions of praise names that might be translatable as something like “Bula [Fakoli] of Wuruwuru [Sumawourou/Sumaworo?].” More readily identifiable is “Sina Yokhobila,” or Sinayogo bila, or “Bila of the Sinayogo [clan].”

154. Cisse, , Empire, 39–41.Google Scholar

155. Ibid., 39; he names N'Golobala, Karasonna, Forékoroba, and Sokondyala.

156. Levtzion, /Hopkins, , Corpus, 334Google Scholar; Levtzion, , Ancient Ghana and Mali, 65.Google Scholar

157. Nanténé Jé Kamissoko (Bamako, 21/7/75).

158. Bird, and Kendall, , “Mande Hero,” 25n4.Google Scholar

159. Fanta Diabaté (Keyla, 5/2/76).

160. Conrad, David C., “Islam in the Oral Traditions of Mali: Bilali and Surakata,” JAH 26 (1985): 33–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

161. Conrad, , “Role” 2: 649–710.Google Scholar

162. Doumbia, , “Etude,” 348.Google Scholar

163. Zeltner, , Contes, 7Google Scholar; Innes, , Sunjata, 147, 161, 231Google Scholar; Cissé, , Empire (1975), 29Google Scholar; Niane, , Sundiata, 38Google Scholar; Fakama Kaloga (Bamako, 12/10/75); Fadian Soumanou (Bamako, 5/11/75). Even in Niane the reference to Fakoli as a “smith” is ambiguous, because at the same time it indicates that he is a king of blacksmith populations (Sundiata, 42, 78).

164. Doumbia, , “Etude,” 338.Google Scholar This is mentioned in an account of the relationship between smiths and the Fula. As one who would himself identify with the blow, the writer Doumbia might have been biased, but his texts were collected from a variety of griots and smiths with the patronymics Bagayogo, Couloubaly (Kulubali), Kante, and Kamissoko.

165. Jeli Yoro Kouyate (Yonfolila, 11/9/75). One Islamic perspective is reflected in this griot's remark that “[w]hen they say 'Big-Headed Fakoli, Big-Mouthed Fakoli', it is because he was over-powered by his own sorcery. A great sorcerer is assisted by Satan.”

166. Kopytoff, , “Internal African Frontier,” 53.Google Scholar

167. Bathily, Ibrahima, “Les Diawandos ou Diogorames: traditions orales recueillies à Djenné, Corientze, Ségou et Nioro,” Education Africaine 25(1936): 192–93Google Scholar; Monod-Herzen, Gabriel, “Essai sur le totémisme soudanais,” Revue d'Histoire des Religions (1908), 52Google Scholar; Diagne, A.M. and Télémaque, H.S., “Origine des griots,” Bulletin de l'enseignement de l'Afrique occidentale française (1916), 277Google Scholar; Colin, R., Les contes noirs de l'ouest africain (Paris, 1957), 65Google Scholar; Sidibé, Mamby, “Les gens de caste ou nyamakala au Soudan Française,” Notes Africaines 81 (1959), 14–15Google Scholar; Jeli Manga Sissoko (Kolokani, 13/8/75).

168. Filipowiak, W., “Iron Working in the Old Kingdom of Mali,” in Halland, Randi and Shinnie, Peter, eds., African Iron Working (Oslo, 1985), 36–37.Google Scholar

169. Pierre de Maret, “The Smith's Myth and the Origin of Leadership in Central Africa” in ibid., 76.

170. McNaughton, , Mande Blacksmiths, 130.Google Scholar

171. Zahan, Dominique, La dialectique du verbe chez les Bambara (Paris, 1963), 126Google Scholar; to Zahan, bila was a vaguely defined category.

172. Villagers of Funébugu are mostly funéw, a bardic occupational group specializing in Islamic texts. According to Wâ Kamissoko and Youssouf Cissé, in Fakoli's time there was an entire region, across the river from Solon, known as “Finadougou,” i.e., “Land of the Fina” (or funéw), Cissé, , Empire, 475.Google Scholar People of Keyla are mostly jeliw, traditional bards of the Diabaté patronymic. There are also many villages occupied mainly by blacksmith families.

173. Cisse, , Empire, 75.Google Scholar Wâ Kamissoko's testimony might have been influenced by pressures induced by high expectations from participants at the SCOA conferences. Bards often project elements from recent times backward into the distant past, but Kamissoko was more knowledgeable then most (or more willing to reveal his knowledge), and had more to project. Both Fanta Diabaté and Mamari Diabaté of Keyla, in separate performances of Janjon, include references to the blow of Solon, Baya, and Bolimakanna, with the addition of Danyogobla (bla of Danyogo).

174. Vidal, , “Légende,” 326.Google Scholar

175. Informants often place Sunjata at Dakajalan, and not Niani or Kangaba (Kaaba) in the period immediately after the battle of Krina in which Sumaworo was vanquished. Johnson, , Epic of Sun-Jala I, 76, II, 224Google Scholar; Cisse, , Empire, 59n1, 69Google Scholar; Fadian Soumanou (Bamako, 5/11/75). M.M. Diabate's variant names it as the site of a deadly battle between Sunjata and Sumaworo (“Presentation,” 77).

176. Niane, , Sundiata, 42, 61, 68, 78.Google Scholar

177. Cissé and Kamissoko, La grande geste; Madina Ly-Tall, L'histoire; Fa-Digi Sisòkò in Johnson, Son-Jara; Magan Sisòkò in Johnson, Sun-Jata; Alkaw Koné in Johnson (1973); Ba Sumana Sisòkò in Johnson (1973); Kanute, Dembo and Suso, Bamba in Innes, , Sunjata (1974)Google Scholar; Kele Monson Diabaté in M.M. Diabaté, Aigle and English text of same in Moser, “Foregrounding.”

178. Cissé, and Kamissoko, , Grande geste, 173n34.Google Scholar A fragment from southern Guinea stresses Fakoli's blacksmith role by recalling him as an important chief of Mande responsible for the circumcision rituals of both men and women. Sila Nani Kamara (Douama-Sobala, 19/10/90).

179. McNaughton, , Mande Blacksmiths, 130–31.Google Scholar

180. Diabaté, Fanta, Janjon (Keyla, 5/2/76)Google Scholar

181. Ly-Tall, et al, Histoire, 69–71Google Scholar; Cisse, /Kamissoko, , Grande geste, 263Google Scholar; Cisse, , Empire (1975), 141Google Scholar; Vidal, , “Légende,” 326Google Scholar; Diabaté, M.M., Janjon, 51Google Scholar; Johnson, , Son-Jara, 136.Google Scholar There is no agreement about which Niani was involved. According to Ly-Tall's informant, Jeli Kanku Madi Jabaté, the Niani of which Fakoli's victim was king is Niani-Kurula in northern Mande, about thirty km west of the Niger and more than 100 km north of the Niani called Mali's “capital” on the Sankarani river. Vidal, (“Légende,” 325–26)Google Scholar and Leynaud, and Cisse, (Paysans Malinke, 152)Google Scholar identify Niani Mansa's town as the one that was later Sunjata's capital, and there is a third Niani shown on the SCOA map about 25 km southwest of Kangaba. See map #14 “Le pays Mande,” Atlas historique de la boucle du Niger (Bamako, 1975–1977).Google Scholar There are also references to Tiramakan Traoré and Sunjata encountering armor: Fanyama Diabaté (Bamako, 18-21/10/75); Innes, , Sunjata, 63.Google Scholar

182. Leynaud, and Cisse, , Paysans Malinke, 154Google Scholar; Montrat, M., “Notice sur l'emplacement de la capitale du Mali,” Notes Africaines 79 (July 1958), 93n11Google Scholar; Vidal, , “Légende,” 326.Google Scholar

183. de Maret, , “Smith's Myth,” 76.Google Scholar

184. Ibid., 85.

185. Ibid., 79.

186. Dieterlen, , “Mande Creation Myth,” 127.Google Scholar

187. McNaughton, , Mande Blacksmiths, 130.Google Scholar

188. 74. Manden Fakòli, n'ay dinyèra ne ma, ka ne sigi Manden masaya goto kan, mògò tè feere tugun. Cissé, and Kamissoko, , La grande geste, 204Google Scholar; also in Cissé, , Empire, 42.Google Scholar

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