|
The "Sundiata Keita" or "Epic of Sundiata" (also referred to as the Sundiata Epic) is an epic poem of the Malinke people and tells the story of the hero Sundiata Keita (died 1255), the founder of the Mali Empire. The epic is an instance of oral tradition, going back to the 14th century and narrated by generations of griot poets or ''jeliw'' (''djeli''). There is no single or authoritative version. Material pertaining to the epic first began to be collected during the early 20th century in French Sudan, notably by the French elite school ''École William Ponty'', resulting in the "modern" version of the tale as considered standard today, as published in "novelistic" form in French translation by Djibril Tamsir Niane in 1960 (English translation 1965). ==Historical context and significance== The amount of historicity of the events portrayed in the epic is open to debate. There are some limited 14th-century Arabic historiographic sources available on the early history of the Mali Empire, notably the records of Ibn Khaldun. Therefore, the evidence of oral tradition may be critical in reconstructing the historical events of the period. Oral tradition necessarily undergoes significant changes over the course of several centuries, but scholars have nevertheless attempted to pinpoint elements in the epic that might reflect historical events. The epic "reflects the early stages in West African traditions when different cultural influences were still coming together".〔.〕 Written summaries of the epic existed in Arabic before 1890. During the 1890s, versions of the epic were collected by French officials and published in French and German translation beginning in 1898. Western-educated West Africans began to produce literary versions of the tale beginning in the 1930s. This was notably the case at the French elite school, ''École William Ponty''. The school staged a drama based on the story in 1937. This period represents the first interaction of the oral tradition with literacy and modernity, and the transformations undergone by the narrative in the context of the 1937 presentation ... eventually resulted in the form of the epic which became most influential in the 1940s and 1950s, before the first "novelistic" treatment by Niane (1960). The first line-by-line transcription of the epic as told by a griot was made in 1967.〔.〕 As an oral historical epic, Sundiata conveys information not only about the history of the Mali Empire, but also about the culture of the Mande ethnic group. Mande family structures had two elements—constructive (''badenya'') or destructive (''fadenya''). ''Fadenya'', or "father-child-ness," is the rivalry between half-siblings, and is represented in the epic of Sundiata by the animosity between Sundiata, son of Sogolon, and Dankaran Touman, son of Sassouma (king Nare Marghan's first wife). The destructive forces of fadenya eventually cause Sundiata and his mother to be exiled from Mali, in the fear that Sassouma would hurt Sogolon's family. ''Badenya'', or "mother-child-ness," is the affection between children of the same mother. This is represented in the epic by the support of Sundiata's sister, Kolonkan, in watching over him against Sassouma's attempts at witchcraft, and by his siblings' later support of him in his battle to reclaim Mali. Maternal support is also important for Sundiata to overcome his physical impairment and begin to walk in response to his mother's pleading. The importance of the mother is underscored by the narrator, who says "the child is worth no more than the mother is worth."〔Niane 1965, p. 22.〕 Significantly, Sundiata needed both the opposing forces of ''fadenya'' and ''badenya'' to fulfill his destiny, indicating that both elements are necessary to Mande culture . The epic of Sundiata is still an integral part of Mande traditional culture and the story continues to be retold by griots and through masked ritual performances. Today the epic of Sundiata has also become part of the official national mythology of the republics of Mali, Gambia, Senegal and Guinea and are treated in history lessons in primary school curricula.〔.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Epic of Sundiata」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|