Duke's History thread...

[General Duke]

Sundiata Keita The Lion Prince...

 

Original Lion King

 

Sundiata Keita or Sundjata Keyita or Mari Djata I or just Sundiata (c. 1217 - c. 1255) was the founder of the Mali Empire and celebrated as a hero of the Malinke people people of West Africa in the semi-historical Epic of Sundiata.

 

Sundjata is also known by the name Sogolon Djata. The name Sogolon is taken from his mother, daughter of the buffalo woman (so called because of her ugliness and hunchback), and Jata, meaning "lion". A common Mande naming practice combines the mother's name with the personal name to give Sonjata or Sunjata. The last name Keita is a clan name more than a surname.

 

The story of Sundiata is primarily known through oral tradition, transmitted by generations of traditional Mandinka griots.

 

Sundiata Keita established his capital at his home village of Niani, Mali, near the present-day Malian border with Guinea. Though he was a Muslim, Sundiata also exploited local religion, building a reputation as a man of powerful magic.

 

Sundiata was not an absolute monarch, despite what the title implies. Though he probably wielded popular authority, the Mali Empire was reportedly run like a federation, with each tribe having a chief representative at the court. The first tribes were Mandinka clans of Traore, Kamara, Koroma, Konde, and of course Keita. The Gbara of Great Assembly was in charge of checking the Mansa's power, enforcing his edicts among their people, and selecting the successor (usually the Mansa's son, brother or sister's son).

 

Sundiata Keita died in 1255, probably of drowning. Tradition holds that he died while crossing the Sankarini river, where a shrine remains today. He had three sons who succeeded him to the throne of the Mali Empire: Mansa Wali Keita, Ouati Keita and Khalifa Keita. The famous West African ruler Mansa Musa is his grandnephew.

 

Sundiata is also known as Mari Djata or Marijata according to Arab historian Ibn Khaldun in the late 14th century.

 

"Mansa" means "king of kings."

 

refrence Lion Prince

[General Duke]

Mansa Musa a member of the Keita Clan

 

Map of the Mali Empire

[MAXIMUS POWERS]

Now I know how you acquired 24768 posts on SOL.

[General Duke]

Timbuktu

 

[General Duke]

The Mali Empire

 

The Mali Empire or Manding Empire or Manden Kurufa was a West African civilization of the Mandinka from c. 1230 to c. 1600. The empire was founded by

Sundiata Keita

and became renowned for the wealth of its rulers, especially Mansa Musa I. The Mali Empire had many profound cultural influences on West Africa allowing the spread of its language, laws and customs along the Niger River. The Mali empire extended over an area larger than western Europe and consisted of numerous vassal kingdoms and provinces

[General Duke]

SUNDIATA - KEITA: THE LION KING

source

 

Nare Fa Maghan -- the son of a long lineage of distinguished hunters known for their skill, bravery and ability to communicate with spirits -- ruled over Mali beginning in 1200. Although he had adapted the Islam religion, he still believed in the world of spirits. A hunter from the north came with a prophecy that two hunters would come to the king with a very ugly woman whom he must marry, for she would bear him Mali's greatest king ever. Maghan's totem animal was the Lion.

 

When two hunters appeared with a hunchback woman, they explained to the king that this woman, Sogolon Kedju, was the human double for a buffalo that had ravaged the land of Do. The hunters felled the buffalo and brought the woman to Mali for she had extraordinary powers. Honoring the prophecy, Maghan married Sogolon and the soon conceived a child.

 

King Maghan's first wife, Sassouma, was jealous; she wanted her son, Dankaran Touman to claim the crown of Mali. Sassouma plotted to kill Sogolon, but the buffalo woman's powers were too great, and the boy was born. He was named Mari Diata, but people called him Sogolon Diata, and eventually, Sundiata.

 

Sassouma was relieved when the new child turned out to be lazy, gluttonous and ugly. Sundiata could not walk and rarely spoke. Still, honoring the prophecy, the dying king gave the boy the gift of a griot named Balla Fasseke, the son of his own griot, believing one day he would be king. However, when the king died, his first wife saw to it that her son, Dankaran claimed the throne. Sundiata, still on all fours was helpless.

 

One day, when Sogolon cried in anger from the insults she and her son had receive, Sundiata said, "Cheer up, Mother. I am going to walk today." Sundiata had a blacksmith make him a heavy iron rod. With trembling legs, he lifted himself, much to the amazement of onlookers, bending the rod into a bow in the process. His griot composed and sung, "The Hymn to the Bow," on the spot-- a hymn still a part of the musical epic of Sundiata sung by griots over eight hundred years later.

 

Now that Sundiata was capable of taking the throne he became a threat to the false king Dankaran and his plotting mother, Sassouma. Sundiata's mother decided to take her son into exile for safety until the time came for him to claim his crown. Before they could leave, Dankaran sent Balla Fasseke, Sundiata's griot, and Sundiata's half sister to the sorcerer king, Suomaoro Kante, of the Sosso who had been threatening all of the kingdoms with his growing army.

 

Sundiata came to manhood while traveling through kingdoms hundreds of miles away, learning to hunt, fight and wield proverbs of wisdom of his ancestors. One day in a far off kingdom of Mema, Sundiata discovered people selling baobob leaves in the market. He knew they had to be from Mali. The seller told him that the evil king, Suomaoro of Sosso, had conquered Mali and sent Dankaran into exile. On the eve Sundiata was to depart from Mema, his mother died.

 

All this time, Sundiata's griot and half-sister remained captives in Soumaoro's court. The brave griot entered the sorcerer king's secret chamber one day and found poisonous snakes writhing in urns, and owls standing over the seven heads of the nine kings Soumaoro had beaten. In the midst of this, Balla Fasseke saw the biggest balafon (a balafon is a wooden xylophone and probably the original griot instrument) which produced a magnificent sound that charmed the snakes and owls. When Soumaoro returned he was livid to find the griot in his chamber. Realizing his danger, Balla Fasseke improvised a praise song to Soumaoro so clever that he made Balla his griot, making war between Soumaoro and Sundiata inevitable.

 

On his way home, Sundiata gathered fighters, archers and horsemen. At Tabon, near the Malian city of Kita, Sundiata's army attacked Soumaoro's forces, sending Soumaoro's army into retreat. In the next confrontation, Sundiata and Soumaoro came face to face. Sundiata dominated, but Soumaoro was able to escape using his own magic. Sundiata felt despair.

 

As Sundiata's army grew, he summoned soothsayers to counsel him on harnessing supernatural powers. At their advice, he ordered the sacrifice of 100 white oxen, 100 white rams, and 100 white cocks. When the slaughter began, Sundiata's griot and half sister returned -- having escaped the city of the evil king. She told Sundiata, that she had been forced to marry Soumaoro, but in doing so, she had found out the secret of is magic. His sacred animal was the cock--this animal had the power to destroy Soumaoro. Armed with this knowledge, Sundiata made a wooden arrow attaching a white cock's spur to the tip.

 

Soumaoro and Sundiata came to battle again in Kirina. The two men observed the ritual of declaring war by sending an owl into each other's encampment, delivering messages of bravado. Having declared their intentions, the war began. During the battle, Sundiata aimed his special arrow and fired, the cock's spur grazing the shoulder of Soumaoro, and all was lost for the Sosso king. When Sundiata reached Soumaoro's city and opened his secret chamber, the snakes and owls were nearly dead.

 

Victorious Sundiata invited all the leaders from the twelve kingdoms of the savanna who helped him to come to Kaba, a city in old Mali. There, he told them they could keep their kingdoms, but would join in a great empire. ("Mali: Africa's..." 1996-97)

 

[General Duke]

Thus the legend of Sundiata Keita the first Mansa of Mali and one of Duke’s all time historical hero's. In this thread I will explore the lives and events of historic figures that have intrigued me from my youth. These will often not be the ones made famous by western historical bias but important figures who have shaped the destiny of millions and touched the world in their own unique way.

[General Duke]

Fulani warrior on horseback

 

Sokoto leaders gathering

 

Usman dan Fodio

 

Shaihu Usman dan Fodio (Arabic: عثم ;ان بن فود ;ي ، عثم ;ان دان ; فود ;يو̴ 6;), born Usuman ɓii Foduye, (also referred to as Shaikh Usman Ibn Fodio, Shehu Uthman Dan Fuduye, or Shehu Usman dan Fodio, 1754 - 1817) was the founder of the Sokoto Caliphate in 1809, a religious teacher, writer and Islamic reformer. Dan Fodio was one of a class of urbanized ethnic Fulani living in the Hausa States in what is today northern Nigeria. A teacher of the Maliki school of law and the Qadiriyyah order of Sufism, he lived in the city-state of Gobir until 1802 when, motivated by his reformist ideas and under increased repression by local authorities, he led his followers into exile. This exile began a political and social revolution which spread from Gobir throughout modern Nigeria and Cameroon, and was echoed in an ethnicly Fula led Jihad movement across West Africa. Dan Fodio declined much of the pomp of rulership, and while developing contacts with religious reformists and Jihad leaders across Africa, he soon passed actual leadership of the Sokoto state to his son, Muhammed Bello.

 

Dan Fodio wrote more than a hundred books concerning religion, government, culture and society. He developed a critique of existing African Muslim elites for what he saw as their greed, paganism, or violation of the standards of Sharia law, and heavy taxation. He encouraged literacy and scholarship, including for women, and several of his daughters emerged as scholars and writers. His writings and sayings continue to be much quoted today, and is often affectionately referred to as Shehu in Nigeria. Some followers consider dan Fodio to have been a Mujaddid, a divinely inspired "reformer of Islam".[2]

 

Dan Fodio's uprising is a major episode of a movement described as the Fulani (Peul) Hegemonies in the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth centuries. It followed the jihads successfully waged in Fuuta-Ɓundu, Fuuta-Jalon and Fuuta-Tooro, between 1650 and 1750, which led to the creation of those three islamic states. In his turn, Shehu inspired a number of later West African jihads, including those of Masina Empire founder Seku Amadu, Toucouleur Empire founder El Hadj Umar Tall (who married one of dan Fodio's granddaughters), and Adamawa Emirate founder Modibo Adama.

[General Duke]

Nigeria, one of the worlds most populous Muslim nations