Sundiata

by

D. T. Niane

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Sundiata makes teaching easy.

Family, Community, and the Mali Empire Theme Analysis

Themes and Colors
Storytelling and Memory Theme Icon
Fate and Destiny Theme Icon
Heroism Theme Icon
Family, Community, and the Mali Empire Theme Icon
Magic and Religion Theme Icon
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Sundiata, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Family, Community, and the Mali Empire Theme Icon

Sundiata is not only the story of Sundiata’s life—it is equally concerned with the Mali Empire and how Sundiata built, conquered, and unified that empire. It's a story about creating community and forming alliances, both on a small scale (through marriage and having children), and on the broad scale of creating a vast empire. In fact, Sundiata’s skill at forging personal relationships enables his success at empire building, which implies that the cultivation of family and community is central to successfully uniting broad groups of people.

Marriage (and then having children) is the primary way in which the epic's characters build their communities. These family units make up the building blocks of the greater society, and they are major animating forces in politics. Since Sundiata depicts a patriarchal society, men often use women and marriage as political tools. Men exchange the women in their families through marriage in order to build alliances and consolidate power. Thus, family and politics are shown to be inseparable and essential as Sundiata fulfills his destiny of uniting Mali. For example, Sundiata benefits politically from his father's marriage to Sogolon, as King Faony Diarra of Do, Sundiata's uncle, comes to his aid in the fight against Soumaoro. In a similar vein, Maghan Kon Fatta, Sundiata's father, agrees to marry Sogolon in the first place because of the prophecy that Sogolon's son (Sundiata) will be a great conqueror and unite Mali. The marriage comes about because of a desire to not simply form family ties, but to produce an heir who will expand his father's empire and serve generations to come.

Sundiata is able to build an army capable of taking on Soumaoro primarily because of his ability to form meaningful and lasting relationships with all sorts of people—young and old, kings and soldiers, strong and weak. The narrator, by devoting entire chapters to lists and descriptions of everyone who participated in Sundiata’s battles, makes it clear that these people and these relationships are extremely important. Further, after his victory, Sundiata makes sure to honor his friends and allies by developing deeper relationships and ties between the different kingdoms that he now rules. This shows that these ties are not simply important to conquering, but also to ruling successfully.

Similarly, the respect and loyalty Sundiata pays to his mother, Sogolon, stands in sharp contrast with his enemies' relationships with their own families. Sundiata does everything in his power to honor his parents and recognize his siblings, while Soumaoro commits incest and abducts Keleya, the wife of his nephew and chief general Fakoli Karoma. Soumaoro "defiles" families under his jurisdiction, robbing them of their daughters without marrying them and denying them the possibility of proper familial relationships. When Sundiata becomes Mansa of Mali, he does the exact opposite of Soumaoro. He rules with justice and fairness, which allows prosperity to grow from the ground up. This encourages the creation of families and the expansion of trade, and it lays a moral foundation that helps the Mali Empire to remain prosperous for many generations after Sundiata. Thus, Sundiata shows that, in order for a large organization of people like an empire to thrive, family and community must be sacred.

Related Themes from Other Texts
Compare and contrast themes from other texts to this theme…

Family, Community, and the Mali Empire ThemeTracker

The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of Family, Community, and the Mali Empire appears in each section of Sundiata. Click or tap on any chapter to read its Summary & Analysis.
How often theme appears:
section length:
Get the entire Sundiata LitChart as a printable PDF.
Sundiata PDF

Family, Community, and the Mali Empire Quotes in Sundiata

Below you will find the important quotes in Sundiata related to the theme of Family, Community, and the Mali Empire.
The Words of the Griot Mamadou Kouyaté Quotes

The art of eloquence has no secrets for us; without us the names of kings would vanish into oblivion, we are the memory of mankind; by the spoken word we bring to life the deeds and exploits of kings for younger generations.

Related Characters: Mamoudou Kouyaté (speaker)
Page Number: 1
Explanation and Analysis:
The Buffalo Woman Quotes

The silk-cotton tree springs from a tiny seed—that which defies the tempest weighs in its germ no more than a grain of rice. Kingdoms are like trees; some will be silk-cotton trees, others will remain dwarf palms and the powerful silk-cotton tree will cover them with its shade.

Related Characters: The Hunter (speaker), Sundiata/Maghan Mari Djata, Gnankouman Doua, Maghan Kon Fatta
Related Symbols: Trees, Seeds, and Growing
Page Number: 5
Explanation and Analysis:
Childhood Quotes

The child, as if he had understood the whole meaning of the king's words, beckoned Balla Fasséké to approach. He made room for him on the hide he was sitting on and then said, “Balla, you will be my griot.”

Related Characters: Sundiata/Maghan Mari Djata (speaker), Balla Fasséké, Gnankouman Doua, Maghan Kon Fatta
Page Number: 15
Explanation and Analysis:
Exile Quotes

You will return to reign when you are a man, for it is in Mali that your destiny must be fulfilled.

Related Characters: Sogolon Kedjou (speaker), Sundiata/Maghan Mari Djata
Page Number: 27
Explanation and Analysis:

“Do not deceive yourself. Your destiny lies not here but in Mali. The moment has come. I have finished my task and it is yours that is going to begin, my son. But you must be able to wait. Everything in its own good time.”

Related Characters: Sogolon Kedjou (speaker), Sundiata/Maghan Mari Djata
Page Number: 38
Explanation and Analysis:
The Return Quotes

Every man to his own land! If it is foretold that your destiny should be fulfilled in such and such a land, men can do nothing against it.

Related Characters: Mamoudou Kouyaté (speaker)
Page Number: 47
Explanation and Analysis:

It was a forced march and during the halts the divines, Singbin Mara Cissé and Mandjan Bérété, related to Sundiata the history of Alexander the Great and several other heroes, but of all of them Sundiata preferred Alexander, the king of gold and silver, who crossed the world from west to east. He wanted to outdo his prototype both in the extent of his territory and the wealth of his treasury.

Related Characters: Mamoudou Kouyaté (speaker), Sundiata/Maghan Mari Djata, Mandjan Bérété, Singbin Mara Cissé
Page Number: 48
Explanation and Analysis:
The Names of the Heroes Quotes

In the same way as light precedes the sun, so the glory of Sundiata, overleaping the mountains, shed itself on all the Niger plain.

Related Characters: Mamoudou Kouyaté (speaker), Sundiata/Maghan Mari Djata
Page Number: 54
Explanation and Analysis:

There they were, the valorous sons of Mali, awaiting what destiny had promised them. Pennants of all colours fluttered above the sofas divided up by tribes.
With whom should I begin; with whom end?

Related Characters: Mamoudou Kouyaté (speaker), Sundiata/Maghan Mari Djata, Fran Kamara/Tabon Wana, Kamandjan, Siara Kouman Konaté, Faony Diarra
Page Number: 55
Explanation and Analysis:
Krina Quotes

You are the outgrowth of Mali just as the silk-cotton tree is the growth of the earth, born of deep and mighty roots. To face the tempest the tree must have long roots and gnarled branches. Maghan Sundiata, has not the tree grown?

Related Characters: Balla Fasséké (speaker), Sundiata/Maghan Mari Djata
Related Symbols: Trees, Seeds, and Growing
Page Number: 62
Explanation and Analysis:
Niani Quotes

There are some kings who are powerful through their military strength. Everybody trembles before them, but when they die nothing but ill is spoken of them. Others do neither good nor ill and when they die they are forgotten. Others are feared because they have power, but they know how to use it and they are loved because they love justice. Sundiata belonged to this group. He was feared, but loved as well. He was the father of Mali and gave the world peace. After him the world has not seen a greater conqueror, for he was the seventh and last conqueror.

Related Characters: Mamoudou Kouyaté (speaker), Sundiata/Maghan Mari Djata
Page Number: 82
Explanation and Analysis:

How many heaped-up ruins, how many vanished cities! How many wildernesses peopled by the spirits of great kings! The silk-cotton trees and baobabs that you see in Mali are the only traces of extinct cities.

Related Characters: Mamoudou Kouyaté (speaker), Sundiata/Maghan Mari Djata
Related Symbols: Trees, Seeds, and Growing
Page Number: 83
Explanation and Analysis:
Eternal Mali Quotes

Mali is eternal. To convince yourself of what I have said go to Mali.

Related Characters: Mamoudou Kouyaté (speaker)
Page Number: 83
Explanation and Analysis: