Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali (Sunjata)

Sogolon, the Buffalo Woman of Do, is the mother of Sundiata and the second wife of King Naré Maghan Kon Fatta. She is repeatedly marked as remarkable for her ugliness, which is related to her supernatural status, her body containing the wraith of the royal woman of Do who could transform into a Buffalo monster (11). Sogolon leads a difficult life, mostly due to her persecution by Sassouma Bérété and her hard years of exile in middle age. Though briefly married to King Naré Maghan, she is quickly excised from the palace and made to live in poverty after his death—and even briefly during his life. Sogolon’s main purpose in the plot is to provide maternal care and protection to Sundiata. She also represents a displaced woman who lives in a male-dominated world and is relatively powerless to decide her own future within it. She dies and is buried at Mema, on the eve of Sundiata’s return to Mali.

Sassouma Bérété is the first wife of Naré Maghan and the rival of Sogolon. She is the mother of Dankaran Touman, the king’s first-born son, who is roughly eight years older than Sundiata. Sassouma is a jealous wife, and her actions against Sogolon and Sundiata resemble those of the evil stepmother archetype of the fairy tale tradition. Sassouma despises Sundiata from the moment of his very birth: “Sassouma Bérété turned out to be unbearable. She […] smarted to see the ugly Sogolon proudly flaunting her pregnancy about the palace […]. Sassouma said to herself, ‘very well then let him be born this child and then we’ll see’” (13). Fearing for the future of Dankaran Touman—and through him her own place as Mandinka royalty—Sassouma ignores prophecy and attempts to kill Sundiata. After his exile, Sassouma becomes the queen mother of Mali, but she is not mentioned in the text after Soumaoro chases Dankaran Touman out of Mali and subsumes the kingdom within his Sosso Empire. Despite her rampant jealousy, Sassouma can be understood as sympathetic to the modern reader, as she exemplifies of one of very few strategic positions of power that women might be able to take within this traditional society. She also represents the inevitability of prophecy despite human defiance, as her role in Sundiata’s exile contributes to his development as a diplomat, which eventually leads to his return to Mali as king.

Dankaran Touman is the son of Sassouma Bérété and Naré Maghan, and the half-brother of Sundiata by fadenya, meaning they share the same father but have different mothers. Unlike his mother, Dankaran is not innately malicious. Instead, he is at turns innocent and oblivious. For instance, when he takes away Sundiata’s griot and Sundiata enters exile, Dankaran states to his mother, “he is leaving but he says he will return. But why is he leaving? I intend to give him back his griot” (28). A pawn in Sassouma’s game, Dankaran is not completely devoid of respectable qualities. When Sassouma scolds him for not exceeding Sundiata in regal qualities, he “suddenly revealed himself as a man of iron. Now he desired the death of his brothers […]. He would reign alone, for power could not be shared” (28). Though directed toward the wrong ends, Dankaran does show strength and resolve in this passage. However, Dankaran is not the rightful king of Mali, and he is naturally chased out of the kingdom by the powerful Soumaoro Kanté. After this, he founds the town of Kissidougou in the land of Cola. The narrative uses this fact to explain the many Keitas who live in this region, said to be descendants of Dankaran Touman (93).

Balla Fasséké is Sundiata’s griot and the most important griot in the narrative. He is the son of Naré Maghan’s own griot, bequeathed by Naré Maghan to Sundiata himself. As such, Fasséké and Sundiata are indelibly bonded, and together they form a single unit of political power. It is because of this bond that Fasséké’s abduction first by Dankaran Touman and then Soumaoro is so heinous—without a griot, Sundiata can never be a complete king. Fasséké is unwaveringly loyal to Sundiata even in his childhood, as his role in the delivery of Sundiata’s iron rod in Chapter 6 represents. As is typical of the griot figure, Fasséké is a gifted wordsmith and a crafty trickster who is able to win over Soumaoro with guile, inspire Sundiata’s troops with rousing speeches, and deliver Sundiata crucial knowledge on how to defeat Soumaoro.