The Epic of Sunjata: Introduction
(Link to reading of Conrad's Version of Sunjata)
The “Literature” of orality. Cultures
in which storytelling serves a similar function to the written word in literate
cultures.
• Continuity:
a sense of history
• Legitimation:
the right to rule for the king, the right to rule as the father, role of the
mother, etc.
• Stories
that establish the values and the morals and ethics of a civilization.
• Development
of linguistic skill, acumen, etc.
In west African cultures, “The Guardian
of the Word” is the griot, or the jeli (jeliw). Known in Death and
the King’s Horseman as the praise singer. In Keita!, you
will hear Mabo address his griot as “jeliba.”
• A hereditary
title, with the griot family connected with their patron family. (Hence the
note in the intro on how some griots will tell the story differently to favor
their patron (thus increasing the patron’s earning power.)
• Just as
in Homer, the poet uses meter and repetition as mnemonic devices, in the African
storytelling tradition, music is used. Quite a few kinds of string and percussive
instruments form the orchestra of the griot or jeli.
• Present
day concerns about the practice of persons who are not entitled by birth to
the status of griot who learn to play the instruments reserved for griots.
Protective of a sacred form, or protective of a right reserved for the few?Comparisons
to other forms of Myth
• From an
oral culture.
• The gods
are invoked, to some extent, but they are neither personified nor named. (Perhaps
this is due to the fact of ancestor worship being the primary idea of the
afterlife in Sub-Saharan Africa.)
• Foundations
in history, but transmitted into literature through the use of the imagination.
?: How do we approach the text?
We are always the outsider, the tourist so to speak, even if we travel to
the interior of Gambia, learn the Malinke language, and get the story from
the griot along with the rest of the tribe. We are more handicapped because
we rely on a translation of an intermediary who was present to heat the story
being told. Is there a danger that we will wind up feeling that the story
is “quaint,” or “of interest, but not to rival the magnificence
of Homer”?
I’m not comfortable prescribing a way
to read or listen. For me, the story is fascinating, sometimes because it
reveals parts of human nature that seen relevant to this day, sometimes because
it exposes a cosmology that is totally outside of western interpretation,
sometimes because it provides a sense of magic and wonder that is comparable
to western texts as well as those from India, China, Japan, the Middle East,
and almost at every turn because it compels its reader to stretch their horizons
that bound the definitions of heroism, myth, religion, and literature.
From the Intro to our book.
“The Cultural and Historical Context”
Note that this part emphasizes the importance
of the jeliw in the maintenance of the stories of the tribes and the values.
The heroic ancestors set high standards that persons in the present must attempt
to match.
This part rehearses some of the problems people
have had with taking oral stories as accurate history.
And most of page xvii is devoted to explaining
how vitally important were the kinship and ethnic backgrounds of groups of
people (something like a caste system in Western Africa). This kind of attention
to hereditary honor might be slightly difficult for us, in our egalitarian
society, to recognize.
“The Bard and His Narrative”
Discusses some of the specific attributes of
this jeli’s telling (Djanka Tassey Condé). The story in this
book was told over 6 days. The musical instruments and the role of the naamu-sayers
is described. There is the notion that many lineages are celebrated in the
mention of the many confederates of Sunjata.
Pay special attention to the complex nature
of Sumaworu alluded to on xx.
While it is men who are the warriors and the
inheritors of power, the introduction wants us to acknowledge the vital role
played by women in the narrative, especially of Sogolon.