1. The twelve doors of Mali refer to the twelve provinces of which Mali was originally composed. After Sundiata’s conquests the number of conquests increased considerably. Early Mali seems to have been a confederation of the chief Mandingo tribes: Keita, Kondé, Traoré, Kamara and Koroma. D.T.N.
2. According to tradition Sundiata’s mother had a buffalo for a totem, namely the fabulous buffalo which, it is said, ravaged the land of Do. The lion is the totem and ancestor of the Keitas. Thus, through his father Sundiata is the son of the lion, and, through his mother, the son of the buffalo. D.T.N.
3. I have used this word ‘Mandingo’ to mean the people who inhabited Mali and their language, and as an adjective to mean anything pertaining to these people, though the adjective ‘Mandingan’ exists too. Old Mali, where much of the action of this story takes place, is a vaguely defined area between the Niger and Sankarani rivers and should not be confused with the modern Republic of Mali of which it is only a fraction. G.D.P.
The inhabitants of Mali call themselves Maninka or Mandinka. Malli and Malinke are the Fulani deformations of the words Manding and Mandinka respectively. ‘Mali’ in the Mandingo language means ‘a hippopotamus’ and it is not impossible that Mali was the name given to one of the capitals of the emperors. One tradition tells us that Sundiata changed himself into a hippopotamus in the Sankarani river. So it is not astonishing to find villages in old Mali which have ‘Mali’ for a name. This name could have formerly been that of a city. In old Mali there is one village called Mali- koma, i.e. New Mali. D.T.N.
4. Bilali Bounama was the first muezzin and the Companion of the Prophet Muhammad. Like most medieval Muslim dynasties, the Mali emperors were careful to link themselves with the Prophet’s family, or at least with someone near to him. In the fourteenth century we will see Mansa Moussa return to Mali after his pilgrimage with some representatives of the Arab tribe of Qureish (Muhammad’s tribe) in order to bring down the Prophet of God’s blessing on his empire. After Kankan Moussa, several princes of Mali were to imitate him, notably Askia Muhammad in the sixteenth century. D.T.N.
This Askia Muhammad (1493–1528) ruled the Songhay Empire which overran that of Mali, but Muhammad’s surname—Touré— indicates his Mandingo origin and in this sense he can be styled a ‘prince of Mali’. G.D.P.
5. The Mandingo word is ‘Simbon’ and it literally means ‘a hunter’s whistle’, but it is also used as an honorific title to denote a great hunter, a title which Sundiata later bore. The funeral wake which the hunters of a district organize in honour of a dead colleague is called ‘Simbon-si’. D.T.N.
6. Kondolon Ni Sané is a dual hunting deity. Kondolon is a god of the chase and has Sané as an inseparable companion. These two deities are always linked and they are invoked as a pair. This dual deity has the property of being everywhere at once and when it reveals itself to the hunter the latter frequently comes across game. The guardianship of the bush and forest devolves on this deity and it is also the symbol of union and friendship. One must never invoke them separately at the risk of incurring very severe punishments. The two deities sometimes rival each other in skill but never fall out. In Hamana (Kouroussa) Mamadi Kani is accredited with the oath which the hunter takes before being received as a Simbon. Here is the oath:
(a) Will you resolve to satisfy Kondolon Ni Sané before your own father? (i.e. one should opt for the Master Hunter when confronted with an order from him and a conflicting order from one’s own father.)
(b) Will you learn that respect does not mean slavery and give respect and submission at all times to your Master Hunter?
(c) Will you learn that cola is good, tobacco is good, honey is sweet, etc.—and give them over to your Master?
If the answer is ‘yes’ the apprentice hunter is accepted. In certain provinces of Siguiri, this oath is attributed to a certain Allah Mamadi who was not a king. D.T.N.
7. All the traditions acknowledge that the little village of Niani was the first capital of Mali and the residence of the first kings. It is said that Sundiata made it into a great city and thus it was called ‘Niani-ba’—Niani the Great. Today it is a little village of a few hundred inhabitants on the Sankarani river and one kilometre from the frontier of the republics of Guinea and Mali. In the songs to Sundiata the town also bears the name of Niani-Niani, which is an emphatic title. D.T.N.
8. The silk-cotton tree of Malabar is the tree referred to here. It was brought to West Africa by the Portuguese in the fourteenth to fifteenth centuries so their frequent mention here is anachronistic, for the action described in this book took place between about 1217 and 1257. G.D.P.
9. The word M. Niane uses is ‘Baraka’ and it means blessing or the gift of divine power, to which our word ‘grace’ approximates. The word is fully discussed by Trimingham in his Islam in West Africa, pp. 111–12. G.D.P.
10. See note 5.
11. A hunter’s bag is called ‘sassa’ in the original. It is a sort of goatskin but there are several different kinds. Usually hunters have a little sassa for their personal fetishes. D.T.N.
12. The clear language par excellence is Mandingo. For the Mandingoes their language is clear like their country of open savannas, which they often contrast with the dark forest—hence references to Mali as the ‘Bright Country’. D.T.N.
13. The land of Do seems to be the present-day region of Segou. Tradition speaks of Do as a powerful country. In modern times Do has been associated with the land of Kri and hence one speaks of ‘Do ni Kri’. It is the land of ten thousand guns according to tradition and here is a poem which extols the land of Do:
‘Land of ten cities
Where Mansa Oumale Kondé reigns,
Do and Kri
Land of the guns, Diarra
Do and Kri.’ D.T.N.
14. In Mali the great harvest takes place in November and December. The young men, freed after these great labours, leave the villages, perhaps to seek a little fortune, or perhaps for the mere love of travel. They generally return a little before the great rains in May and June. D.T.N.
15. Most West African tribes believe in wraiths or doubles, but beliefs vary and are often difficult to determine even for one tribe. The Mandingoes believe that there are two spiritual principles in man; the life principle (ni) which returns to God at death, and the wraith or double (dya) which can leave the body during sleep, and after death stays in the house of mourning until the performance of ritual sacrifices releases it to wander among the places frequented by the dead person until, after fifty years, it rejoins the ni. Much of the activity of the double in this book, however, seems better explained by references to the Hausa concepts of ‘kurwa’ and ‘iska’. For a full discussion of all these ideas see Trimingham, op. cit., pp. 58–60. G.D.P.
16. According to tradition, it was at the death of the buffalo that the distinction between Traoré and Dioubate arose. The two brothers Oulani and Oulamba were both Traorés. When the younger had killed the buffalo, Oulamba, the elder, composed off the cuff a song to the victor which said: ‘Brother, if you were a griot, nobody would resist you,’ in Mandingo: ‘Koro toun Bake Djeli a Dian-Bagate.’ The expression ‘Dian-Baga-te’ became ‘Diabate’ and by corruption ‘Dioubate’. Thus the Dioubate griots are related to the Traorés. D.T.N.
17. From this ludicrous choice the Traorés and Kondés became ‘sana-khou’ which might be expressed by the coined word ‘banter-brothers’. It means that as a token of some historical relationship two tribes or clans acquired the right to poke fun at one another with impunity. ‘Banter-brotherhood’ exists among many tribes of the savanna zone to this day. I once heard my servant allow himself to be called a bastard by a member of a tribe related to his only by this curious bond, and he merely laughed at this very grave insult. G.D.P.
18. The giving of cola nuts marks the opening of any sort of negotiation among the Mandingoes, and in this case the negotiation of a marriage. G.D.P.
19. The ‘bolon’ is a three-stringed instrument similar to the ‘kora’ which, however, has twenty-seven strings. The music of the bolon is war music whereas the kora is for domestic music. D.T.N.
20. A bloodstained cloth which showed publicly that the marriage had been consummated and that the bride had been a virgin. G.D.P
21. Sand was used in divination and could give messages to the initiated. G.D.P.
22. The blood is the vehicle of the spiritual principles in man, of which the wraith is one. Shedding blood releases these principles, congealing paralyses them. G.D.P.
23. Owls are birds of ill-omen in West Africa, supposed to contain the spirits of the dead. G.D.P.
24. The ‘tabala’ was the royal ceremonial drum, one of the insignia of Muslim kingship. G.D.P.
25. The ‘balafon’ is an instrument like a xylophone made of blocks of wood set on gourds. G.D.P.
26. Maghan the Handsome. G.D.P.
27. Sundiata’s gluttony was also legendary and some connect his surname with this: Soun (thief)—Djata (lion). It is said that he went marauding from house to house. According to another tradition (the one I have adopted), the name of Sundiata came from a contraction of his mother’s name, Sogolon, placed before the name of the son, Djata, a very frequent practice among the Mandingoes. This gives Sogolon Djata—So-on Djata. The exact pronunciation in Mandingo lands is ‘Sondjata’. D.T.N.
28. It is customary for West African boys to go for a few months to ‘bush school’ where they learn tribal lore in preparation for circumcision at the age of about twelve, when they become fully initiated members of the tribe. G.D.P.
29. I have been unable to find out the botanical name for this plant so I have used the word as it appears in the original. G.D.P.
30. The baobab is sometimes known as the monkey bread tree; its leaves are used for flavouring. G.D.P.
31. It was the custom to send princes of one court to be brought up in another. The political motive was twofold. The princes would probably preserve their boyhood friendships on coming to the throne, and while they were at the foreign court they could serve as hostages guaranteeing their fathers’ loyalty. G.D.P.
32. M. Niane uses throughout the Mandingo name for Alexander, ‘Djoulou Kara Naini’, which is a corruption of the Arabic ‘Dhu’l Qarnein’. G.D.P. In all the Mandingo traditions they like to compare Sundiata to Alexander. It is said that Alexander was the second last great conqueror of the world and Sundiata the seventh and last. D.T.N.
33. This oversight is in the original French. Sassouma Bérété offered the witches hay, not millet. Millet, however, seems a more likely thing for her to offer G.D.P.
34. Wori is a very popular game in the western Sudan. It is like draughts, but the pieces are small stones laid out in holes bored in a tree-trunk.. D.T.N.
35. Meetings and consultations were, and still are, held under a prominent tree. G.D.P.
36. Sundiata here addresses Mansa Konkon in the familiar second person singular. G.D.P.
37. The Mandingoes are part of a racial group including Bambaraj, Sossos (pron. Soosoos) and Diallonkés, all speaking closely related languages and occupying adjacent territory; these we can refer to as tribes. Within these tribes there are clans such as the Traorés, Keitas, Kondés and Kamaras, who speak the same language but claim different ancestors and totems. Among these clans there are castes of craftsmen, endogamous groups with their own rituals, protective deities, etc. One of the most important castes was that of the smiths who, in an iron age society, had the power to make the best weapons and use them to their own advantage. After Islamization these castes held on to many of their pagan practices and became feared for their occult powers, though they occupied an inferior social position and kept to their own villages. Hence in this book smiths are often mentioned as being great sorcerers or soothsayers. G.D.P.
38. Wagadou is the Mandingo name for the land of old Ghana reigned over by the Tounkara-Cissé princes. D.T.N.
In translating I have made a distinction which does not appear in the original since M. Niane uses the word Wagadou throughout. I have used Wagadou to mean the city where the Cissé kings reigned and Ghana, a more familiar word to English readers, to mean the empire as a whole. In fact, in Sundiata’s day Ghana had been reduced to the area of the city of Wagadou and its environs. G.D.P.
39. The distance was approximately 550 km. G.D.P.
40. I have used the word ‘taboo’ to translate the French pacte. M. Niane explains that the original word is ‘dio’, a prohibition pronounced by an ancestor and which the descendants must respect. Here the taboo relates to the well-known legend of the snake of Wagadou. This city had as a protective jinn a gigantic snake to which a young woman was sacrificed every year. The choice having fallen on the beautiful Sia, her betrothed, Mamadou Lamine (called ‘Amadou the Silent’ by other traditions), cut off the snake’s head and saved his beloved. Ever after, calamities kept falling on the city, whose inhabitants fled following a drought which struck the whole country. It is in any case difficult to fix the date of the disappearance of Wagadou. According to Delafosse the city was annihilated by Sundiata himself in 1240, but Ibn Khaldun still mentions an interpreter from Ghana at the end of the fourteenth century. D.T.N.
41. The original gives ‘serpent-Bida’. G.D.P.
42. The white traders referred to were probably Moors from the Sahara. G.D.P.
43. The Soninke are a tribe related to the Mandingoes but interpenetrated by Berbers and Fulanis. They were Islamized earlier than other West African tribes and thus gained the reputation of being very religious. They are also great traders and travellers. See Trimingham, op. cit., pp. 13–14. G.D.P.
44. The French word is marabout, but it is used in West Africa to mean a Muslim cleric or divine, or even someone who is merely very religious, as the distinction between clergy and laity is not marked. G.D.P.
45. Mandingo. G.D.P.
46. ‘Sofas’ are Sudanese infantrymen, or soldiers, warriors generally. D.T.N.
47. Diaghan lay on either side of the Falémé river, a tributary of the Senegal. The Diarisso dynasty was founded by a certain Kambine in the eleventh century and was formed from Soninke refugees who had escaped the attacks of the Almoravids by fleeing south from Ghana. Soumaoro (sometimes spelt Soumangourou) was the son of a Soninke warrior, Djara of the Kanté clan. Some scholars think that the present-day Sossos who inhabit the coastal region of Guinea had nothing to do with Soumaoro’s city of Sosso. M. Niane, however, maintains that they are the descendants of Soumaoro’s followers who fled to the Fouta Djallon after their leader’s defeat at Krina. G.D.P.
48. The material symbol which is the abode of some supernatural power, e.g. a statuette, altar, mask, etc. See Trimingham, op. cit., p. 104. G.D.P.
49. Like many other African cities, Sosso seems to have been an agglomeration of villages belonging to distinct clans or castes. G.D.P.
50. The ‘Vulture Tune’, with the ‘Hymn to the Bow’, is frequently mentioned in the text. They are traditional songs still current among the Mandingoes. D.T.N.
51. Here is one of the dicta that often recurs in the mouths of the traditional griots. This explains the parsimony with which these vessels of historical traditions give their knowledge away. According to them, the Whites have vulgarized knowledge. When a White knows something everybody knows it. One would have to be able to change this state of mind if one wanted to know some day all that the griots decline to give away. D.T.N.
52. The mithkal was an Arab measurement of weight equal to 4.25 grammes. In Mandingo this term is used to denote the smallest fraction of something. D.T.N.
53. Some traditions say that Fakoli’s wife, Keleya, managed on her own to regale the whole army with her cooking, while the three hundred wives of Soumaoro never managed to feed the troops to their satisfaction. Jealous, Soumaoro abducted Keleya. This was the origin of Fakoli’s defection. He rallied to Sundiata. D.T.N.
54. It is known that in the forest region of Guinea, south of Kankan, many Mansare/Keitas are to be found. It is said that they are the descendants of Dankaran Touman, who colonized (Mandingized) the whole region of Kissidougou. These Keitas are called Farmaya Keita. It is said that when Dankaran Touman arrived on the site of Kissidougou he cried, ‘An bara kissi’ (We are saved), whence the name given to the town. Kissidougou is thus, etymologically, the city of safety. D.T.N.
A bit dubious, I feel. The dominant tribe in that area is the Kissi tribe and ‘dougou’ is a common ending for place names in this region. G.D.P.
55. I have been unable to find the botanical name for this so I use the original. G.D.P.
56. Mother. G.D.P.
57. Bouré is the region to the north-west of Siguiri in Guinea. G.D.P.
58. ‘Daffeké’ is an emphatic word for ‘a fine charger’. D.T.N.
59. The tradition of Dioma represents the battle of Kankigné as a semi-defeat for Sundiata:
‘Kankigné Tabe bara djougouya
Djan ya bara bogna mayadi.’
‘The battle of Kankigné was terrible; men were less dignified than slaves there.’ D.T.N.
60. The word I have translated as ‘pennant’ is ‘bandari’ which comes from the Arabic and means a banner, standard, flag, pennant. Another word also borrowed from Arabic is ‘raya’ which denotes a banner formerly carried by great clerics on the move. Even now regional chiefs still raise their ‘bandari’ above their house. D.T.N.
61. ‘N’Ko’ means ‘I say’ in Mandingo. The Mandingoes like to distinguish themselves from other peoples by their language. For them, Mandingo is the ‘Kan gbe’ (clear language par excellence). All those who say ‘N’Ko’ are, in theory, Mandingoes. D.T.N.
62. A ‘tana’ is a hereditary taboo, and can also mean a totem, i.e. the object of the taboo. In this case Soumaoro was forbidden to touch ergot, of which a cock’s spur is composed, and as long as he observed this he could concentrate in himself the power of his ancestors. On his touching ergot and thus breaking the taboo his ancestors withdrew their power and his downfall followed. Power and life-force are regarded as communal possessions in Africa and when a man cuts himself off from the group by breaking a taboo he is as good as dead unless he performs a sacrifice in expiation. G.D.P.
63. This is an expression of joy in Mandingo. D.T.N.
64. ‘Fama-Djan’ means ‘the tall chief’. Later, particularly under Kankan Moussa, ‘Fama’ was to be the title of provincial governors, the word ‘Farin’ being reserved for military governors. ‘Ke-Farin’ means ‘valorous warrior’. D.T.N.
65. Forward. D.T.N.
66. There are numerous versions of Soumaoro’s end. Here it is the Hamana version. That of Dioma says that Soumaoro, pursued by Sundiata, invoked his protective jinn for the last time, asking them not to let him fall into Sundiata’s hands. So he was transformed into stone on the mountain of Koulikoro. Other traditions say that Soumaoro, hit by the cock’s spur at Krina, disappeared right on the battlefield. The fact remains that after Krina the king of Sosso is never heard of again. His son Balla, captured by Fakoli, was taken in captivity to Mali. D.T.N.
67. The bourein is a dwarf shrub which grows in poor ground. It is a savanna variety of gardenia. Its use in the kitchen is forbidden and it is a shrub of ill-omen. D.T.N.
68. Diaghan was the town of Dia, which, according to the traditions, was a town of great divines. The Diawara reigned at Dia; the name means ‘Wild Beast of Dia’. D.T.N.
69. The Keitas. G.D.P.
70. On the emperor’s stay at Kita it is the Dioma version that I have followed. The Keitas of Dioma claim that their ancestor, a grandson of Sundiata, left Kita to come and settle in Dioma. Kiat was one of the big towns of the empire. D.T.N.
71. It is generally believed that Ka-ba (the present-day Kangaba) was one of the earliest residences of the Keitas. Local tradition states that the Keitas did not settle there until after Sundiata. Kangaba is a foundation of the Sibi Kamaras and the Traorés. The Keitas who settled there came from Mali in this way. There were two brothers of whom the younger, Bemba Kanda, left his brother at the halting-place of Figuera-Koro, came and settled at Ka-ba and allied himself to the Kamaras. In consequence several Keita families came and settled there. D.T.N.
72. The dynasty Sundiata founded is always treated as a Muslim dynasty though outside of the royal tribe Islam was weak and, as the text shows, mixed with a lot of pagan survivals. G.D.P.
73. King of kings. D.T.N.
74. ‘Mansa’ is a title equivalent to emperor or paramount king. The French version often has ‘roi’ before Mansa as if Mansa were a name. I have followed this in translating, but it is not strictly correct. G.D.P.
75. This song is one of the most famous which Balla Fasséké composed to Sundiata. It expresses the idea that Sogolon’s son was the rampart behind which everyone found refuge. In other songs also attributed to Balla Fasséké Sundiata is constantly compared to Alexander (cf. recording number L.D.M. 30.081 ‘Vogue’ made by Keita Fodeba). For my part I am inclined to attribute these songs to griots of the time of Kankan Moussa (1307–1332). In fact at that time the griots knew general history much better, at least through Arabic writings and especially the Koran. D.T.N.
76. The original has ‘moude’, a Mandingo deformation of Arabic ‘mudd’, which is a cereal measure, in fact, the legal measure fixed by the Prophet. As the taxes were paid in kind they were calculated by the mudd and finally the word came to mean simply a tax. A mudd of rice weighed 10–15 kilos, i.e. the contents of a basket of rice. D.T.N.
77. The Sahel is the region of the Sudan bordering on the Sahara. G.D.P.
78. Here Djeli Mamadou Kouyaté declined to go any further. However, there are many accounts of Sundiata’s end. The first says that Sundiata was killed by an arrow in the course of public demonstration in Niani. The second, very popular in Mali, is rendered feasible by the presence of Sundiata’s tomb near the Sankarani. According to the second account Sundiata was drowned in the Sankarani and was buried near the very place where he was drowned. I have heard this version from the mouths of several traditionists, but following what events did Sundiata meet his death in the waters? That is the question to which a reply must be found. D.T.N.
79. Here Djeli Mamadou Kouyaté mentions several kings of Mali. Hajji Mansa Moussa is no other than the famous Kankan Moussa (1307–1332) made for ever illustrious by his celebrated pilgrimage in 1323. The Dioma tradition attributes to Kankan Moussa the foundation of many towns which have now disappeared. D.T.N.
80. Griot traditionists travel a great deal before being ‘Belen-Tigui’—Master of Speech in Mandingo. This expression is formed from ‘belen’, which is the name for the tree-trunk planted in the middle of the public square and on which the orator rests when he is addressing the crowd. ‘Tigui’ means ‘master of’. There are several famous centres for the study of history, e.g. Fadama in Hamana (Kouroussa), situated on the right bank of the Niandan opposite Baro; but more especially Keyla, the town of traditionists; and Diabaté near Kangaba (Ka-ba), Republic of Mali. Mamadou Kouyaté is from the village of Djeliba Koro in Dioma (south of Siguiri), a province inhabited by the Keitas who came from Kita at the end of the fourteenth century and the beginning of the fifteenth century (see my Diplôme d’Etudes Supérieures). D.T.N.