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kiwi
Sweden
662 Posts |
 Posted - 08 Dec 2006 : 00:16:53
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I have just finished reading ”Sundiata; an epic of old Mali” as told by Djeli Mamadou Kouyaté and retold by D T Niane, a native of Senegal, a story which begins as follows:
”Listen to the story of the son of the Buffalo, the son of the Lion. I am going to tell you of Maghan Sundiata, of Mari-Djata, of Sogolon Djata, of Naré Maghan Djata; the man of many names against whom sorcery could avail nothing.
Listen then, sons of Mali, children of the black people, listen to my word, for I am going to tell you of Sundiata, the father of the Bright Country, of the Savanna land, the ancestor of those who draw the bow, the master of a hundred vanquished kings."
A true epic!
So many cities, so many kíngs, so many unfamiliar names, so many familiar names, Keita, Kamara, Fasséké, Traoré, Konaté, Kondé.
I hade a little difficulty with some words though, I´m sure you can help me
Who or what were sofas? – ” The sofas, forming a vast semicircle bristling with spears..”
What is jinn? – as in ” jinn of a mountain”
I understand the word soothsayer, but is it the same as marabou?
What is fonio?
N´ko: Wassa, wassa...ayé.
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kiwi |
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Momodou
Denmark
11829 Posts |
Posted - 08 Dec 2006 : 01:11:13
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Hi Kiwi, it’s good to see that you read this book. I remember the discussion in April when you raised a question about surnames in http://www.gambia.dk/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=792&whichpage=2 when I suggested that you read this book. What do you think now?
I think Sofas were warriors .
A marabout is Islamized form of soothsayer.
Jinn: "Invisible beings, that constitute a world almost parallel to the human, according to Islam. The jinns are living with humans, and are a central part of the Muslim world view. The belief in jinns is orthodox, as they are mentioned several times in the Koran."
http://www.google.gl/search?hl=da&q=jinn&btnG=Google-s%C3%B8gning&lr=
fonio: is wind |
A clear conscience fears no accusation - proverb from Sierra Leone |
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kiwi
Sweden
662 Posts |
Posted - 08 Dec 2006 : 17:10:05
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Thanks for the explanation.
About the names: I understand that surnames like Kamara are genuin African names existing long before the Portuguese came there. Isn´t that so?
On the other hand, when it comes to first names, it´s sometimes difficult to know whether it is a genuin African or Arabic name.(I mean generally, not in this book.)
About the book: The story is quite complicated, not the story itself but the swarm of people being named with different names, the vast families, who is brother to whom, the kings and mansas, unfamiliar habits and so on. I have already decided to reread the whole story and make notes to get a proper structure. To my help I found a list of names on the net, a list which explains family connections and names of important places.
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kiwi |
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njucks
Gambia
1131 Posts |
Posted - 08 Dec 2006 : 23:37:40
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Kiwi, perhaps the best way to understand it is to divide it into three parts, his childhood, exile, and return. he was born with a cripplying disease so he and his mother were discriminated. at each state people helped him and these are the names being repeated throughout. Most of the surnames are the same, and as people migrated and mixed with other ethnic groups the 'names' of these surnames change.
For example Sundiata's army was led by Tiramaghan Traore, who later migrated west into the senegambia region. so today in The Gambia and Senegal, Traore occurs as Jobe, Sanneh etc.but its all the same. in English it is spelled Trawally.
Infact Sundiata himself is given the surname Keita, but this is not really a surname. Keita simply means to inherit or those that inherit. his father's surname was Konateh.
A similar book has been written this time from The Gambia and in one of the pages Alh. Bamba Suso gives an excellent summary of most surnames and how they came about and evolved to.
the book is by Gordon Innes and its called and the story is named by Banna Kanouteh and Alh Bamba Suso. |
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