Sundiata Keita The Mandinka Lion
By unifying the fragmented kingdoms of West Africa in the 13th century, Sundiata Keita created an empire whose greatness the griots still praise. The Mandingo lion was a fierce warrior and skillful statesman.
Born disabled in 1190, in Niani in the small Kingdom of Mandingo (currently Upper Guinea), Sundiata Keita had to go into exile after the death of his father, King Naré Maghann Konaté. He then distinguished himself in the war against the king of Sosso, Soumaoro Kanté, and became Mansa, king of kings, at the end of the battle of Kirina, in 1235. He died in 1255, leaving a huge empire.
Naré Maghann Konaté was a king of Manding, a small kingdom in West Africa. He was once visited by a diviner hunter who predicted that an ugly woman would one day give him a son who would become a great king. Naré Maghann Konaté was already married to Sassouma Berté and had a son Dankaran Toumani Keïta. Yet when, a few years later, two hunters from the country of Do presented him with an ugly and hunchbacked woman, Sogolon Kondé, remembering the prediction he married her. His second wife gave birth to a son named Sundiata Keïta. This one remained crippled during all his childhood unable to stand up.
On the death of Naré Maghann Konaté, in 1218, Dankaran Toumani Keïta, the first son took power despite the will of the late king to respect the prediction. Sundjata and his mother, who had given birth to two daughters and adopted the son of Naré Maghann Konaté’s third wife, were the constant object of contempt for the new king and his mother. After an affront to his mother, Sundiata, at the age of seven, managed to stand up. He miraculously recovers the use of his legs when he touched the royal staff. But the hatred of Sassouma Berté and Dankaran Toumani Keïta drove Sundiata, his mother and his sisters into exile in the Kingdom of Mena.
Sundiata, seeing his mother humiliated began to walk by the sheer force of his will, to avenge her. “His first steps were giant steps.”
Soumaoro Kanté, king of Sosso, attacked the kingdom of Manding. Dankaran Toumani Keïta, fearing for his life, had to flee. According to tradition, Soumaoro leads about ten expeditions during which he massacres eleven of the sons of Naré Maghann Konaté, except Sundiata Keita.
At the head of his empire, Sundiata is distinguished by his ambition to unite all ethnic groups, organizing society into clans without hierarchical relations between them. He assigns land, rights, and duties to everyone. He is also credited with the initiative of the Mandén Charter or Kouroukan Fouga Charter, enacted in 1236 and considered by some to be the first text on human rights in Africa.
