SOURCE: Johnson, John William. “Historicity and the Oral Epic: The Case of Sun-Jata Keita.” In The Old Traditional Way of Life: Essays in Honor of Warren E. Roberts, edited by Robert E. Walls and George H. Schoemaker with Jennifer Livesay and Laura Dassow Walls, pp. 351-61. Bloomington, Ind.: Trickster Press, 1989.

In the following essay, Johnson uses the example of the Sunjata to explore the general question of historicity in oral tradition.

Western-trained scholars have attempted to reconstruct a history of the great empire period of West Africa arguing that Sun-Jata Keita, the culture hero of one of those great empires, that of Old Mali, was an historical person.¹ Recent oral historians have refined their arguments concerning historicity in oral traditions, responded to criticism from anthropologists, and continue to keep their faith in oral tradition as evidence of past history. Unfortunately, they appear not to have read the work...