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Essay / Research Paper Abstract
This 4 page paper discusses the African oral tradition that tells of Sundiata, and how he founded what became the nation of Mali. The paper considers the text as a text and as a story. There are 3 sources listed in the bibliography.
Page Count:
4 pages (~225 words per page)
File: D0_HVSundta.rtf
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Unformatted sample text from the term paper:
Africa; many of the peoples there have storytellers whom they prize highly. Sundiata is such a story, one that was handed down by a "griot" to Camara Laye, who wrote
it down and brought it to the world. The story is of the events "surrounding the rise and reign of Sundiata, a thirteenth century African leader" (Ross). The word "griot"
is translated as "guardian of the word" - a storyteller - and this story was told to Laye in Guinea, West Africa (Ross). The role of the griot in African
history is extremely important, because these are the people who keep traditions alive by handing them down to the next generation (Ross). The oral tradition "survived the colonial period and,
since independence, has been revived by Africans seeking to understand their past more fully" (Ross). Laye didnt write the novel in the sense we think of authorship, instead, he
"recorded the words of a modern griot named Babu Conde, then transcribed them into a purely African work" (Ross). It is thus the voice of Conde we hear in the
book rather than Laye. The importance of the book as a text, then, is that it helped to revive the oral storytelling tradition in Africa. The importance of the character
in the book is that he becomes a true hero. Conde frames the story of Sundiata "with genealogy and a history of earlier rulers," then goes on to recount the
adventures that made up Sundiatas life (Ross). Sundiata is typical of the epic style of world literature (Ross). The story begins with the marriage of Sundiatas parents, the "ugly and
hunchbacked" woman Sogolon, who marries Maghan Kon Fatta; she is his second wife (Ross). Sundiata is born to the couple during a violent storm, and although it is prophesied that
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