Not directly as an answer for this query, but as a reminder concerning
teaching Sundiata for undergraduate and graduate students. There's an
exellent film by Dani Kouyat=E9 _The Heritage of the Griot_ (Burkina =
Faso,
1995, 94 min) which can be used when teaching Sundiata and African oral
literature.
"Keita creates a unique world where the West Africa of the 13th Century
Sundjata Epic and the West Africa of today co-exist and interpenetrate.
Director Dani Kouyat=E9 frames his dramatization of the epic within the =
story
of Mabo Keita, contemporary boy from Burkina Faso, learning the history =
of
his family. During the film, Mabo and his distant ancestor, Sundjata, =
engage
in parallel quests to understand their destinies, to "know the meaning =
of
their names". In so doing, Keita makes the case for an "Afrocentric"
education, where African tradition, not an imported Western curricula =
is the
necessary starting point for African development."
"The film recounts only a part of the epic, the events surrounding the
birth, boyhood and exile of Sundjata which correspond to lines 356 to =
1647
in the standard translation, Johnson, John William, The Epic of =
Son-Jara
(Sundjata): A West African Tradition, Bloomington, Indiana University =
Press,
1992."
I have read the parts of Sundjata (translated in Finnish) with my =
students
and we have discussed the significance of griot and oral literature. =
Since
knowing your own history is a central part of griot tradition, after
screening the film, the students have been asked to work in pairs and =
tell
to each others the history of their names (their family) and then =
present
some of the stories to the class . They have been ashtonished when =
noticing
how little they know about their own roots.
Mari Maasilta
University of Tampere
Finland
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