The ‘official’ legend of Sundiata, founder of the Mali empire

Abstract

Abstract Introduction to, analysis of and text of an oral narrative of Sunjata by traditional narrators from Kela recorded by Jules Vidal in 1922 and published in French in 1924. Vidal's version was dubbed 'official' largely because of the view that nearby Niani was a medieval capital of Mali, a view championed by D.T. Niane but recently disproved, and because of the famous Kamablon ceremony that takes place every seventh year in Kela at which a lengthy version of the Sunjata epic is performed in secret by Diabate (Jabate) griots patronised by the nearby Keita rulers of Kangaba, once a notable Manding chiefdom and seen by some as the last remnant of the empire of Mali.