He occasionally addresses the reader directly. Condition: Used - Good Published: 2006 Binding: Paperback ISBN 10: 1405849428 Quantity Available: 1 Seller. Point of View: Third person omniscient, narrated by the griot Mamoudou Kouyaté.Antagonist: First Sassouma Bérété, later Soumaoro, king of Sosso and his allies.Climax: When Sundiata defeats Soumaoro at the Battle of Krina and is then crowned Mansa.Setting: Mali Empire, namely the cities of Niani, Wagadou, Cissé, Mema, Tabon, and Sosso, around 1216-1236.Literary Period: Pre-Colonial African Literature.The English translation used in this LitChart was published in 1965.

When Published: The first written accounts of the epic were in Arabic and existed prior to 1890, but versions of the tale weren't published in Europe until 1898 (in German and French).

Niani, the capital city of the Mali Empire, still exists and is in Guinea.

Where Written: The historical kingdom of Mali existed in what is now modern-day Guinea and southwestern Mali in northwest Africa.

A version was first published in 'novelistic' (prose) French by Djibril Tamsir Niane in 1960, while the English translation was developed by G. The story was traditionally told by griots (professional storytellers) and existed only as an oral story for centuries without any one particular authoritative version existing. Not long after Nianes birth, her fathers translation of an important epic of West African history, Sundiata, was published in the West for the first time.

When Written: Sundiata, the founder of the Mali Emperor, lived from 1217-1255 CE, and this oral tale was presumably composed after the Battle of Krina in 1235 CE. Djibril Tamsir Niane, her father, was a prominent playwright, historian, and professor who had been educated in neighboring Senegal and France.

Full Title: Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali (also referred to as Sundiata Kieta or Epic of Sundiata).

Sundiata by Djibril Tamsir Niane