SOURCE: Belcher, Stephen. “Sunjata and the Traditions of the Manden.” In Epic Traditions of Africa, pp. 89-114. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999.

In the following excerpt, Belcher offers a literary analysis of portions of the Sunjata and discusses some of the epic's different versions.

The Manden (sometimes Manding) is a space, in some way perhaps a time, and for many, an idea. The space is roughly defined by the headwaters of the Niger and its affluents and lies in western Mali and eastern Guinea; it is occupied by the Malinke, for whom it is a symbolic heartland from which the more widespread branches of their people have departed at various times to take on different names (Mandinka, Dyula, Konyaka, and others). As a time, the Manden looks back to its period of unification and glory under the emperor Sunjata. In his time (generally dated to the early thirteenth century...