Sundiata

Sundiata tells the story of the second born son of a King from a second wife that is destined to become a great leader. Sundiata is a cripple until 7 and his father died, allowing the first wife to hold power. The first wife tries to stop Sundiata from completing the prophecy and exiles him. Eventually Sundiata defeats the sorcerer king and unifies Mali.

Personally this text affects me by increasing my self confidence, if a crippled boy who is the second in line to the crown can overcome his struggles to become a great warrior and leader after being exiled, then I can do anything. It also affects me personally because it causes me to be more cautious, especially of people whose position I threaten. People will benefit themselves at any chance they get, just like the Queen and first son did to Sundiata by exiling him and not following the Kings order to make Sundiata the heir. This can be used to one’s advantage also, many Kings realized Sundiata would be a better and less controlling leader than Soumaoro and sided with Sundiata against Soumaoro toward the end of the story. A part of the story that caught my attention was when Sogolon embarrassed Sundiata after being insulted by Sassouma. Sogolon hits Sundiata and asks if he’ll ever walk. Sundiata replied that he’d walk today if given an iron rod and get her leaves or a tree, after being given the rod he bends in into a bow on his way up showing his immense power, he uproots a tree and brings it to Sogolon. This caught my attention because after being a cripple for many years Sundiata stood when he was embarrassed and had nearly superhuman strength. I expected him to stay a cripple since medical practices at the time typically couldn’t fix cripples but instead he became the King and lost his disability. A part of the story that provokes an emotional reaction would be the ending of the story, It made me happy to see Mali flourish under Sundiata’s rule after he creates alliances between his kingdom. Another part of the story that provoked an emotional reaction would be when Soumaoro burns down the different cities including Niani. This made me sad because it was Sundiata’s hometown, and it was all because of one kings greed to rule the kingdom. This text reminds me of Macbeth in certain ways because of the theme of destiny to rule the kingdom and the journey of getting there. This text goes against my beliefs, I am a Christian and I have a traditionalistic mindset therefore Sundiata went against my beliefs because it does not follow tradition but destiny, I believe the first son should be the heir and that a man should only have one wife. Meanwhile the first king had many wives and wanted his second born son to be the heir. This text gave me insight on the importance of history, that we are doomed to repeat it if we do not learn it. This text also gave me insight to patient and know when the time is right to make an action, Sundiata knew it was time to stand when his mother embarrassed him and he also traveled city to city following his exile allowing him to mature and make connections, these experiences helped him know when the time was right to return to Mali and fight for his destiny to be king.