Overview
Region
West Africa
Guinea/Mali
Era
Pre-colonial Oral Traditions
Language
French/Malinke
Genre
Folklore
About This Work
The epic of Sundiata Keita, founder of the Mali Empire, as told by the griot Djeli Mamoudou Kouyaté to D.T. Niane in the 1950s. Sundiata overcomes physical disability, exile, and enemies to unite the Mandinka people.
Literary Significance
The foundational text of West African oral tradition; source for the name Mandela, the New York Knicks, and countless works of Afrofuturism