Soumaoro Kanté (also known as Sumaworo Kanté or Sumanguru Kanté) was a 13th-century king of the

Sosso The Sosso Empire, also written as Soso or Susu, or alternatively Kaniaga, was kingdom of West Africa that originated as a vassal of the Ghana Empire before breaking away and conquering their former overlords. Inhabited by the Soninke ancestors ...

people. Seizing Koumbi Saleh, the capital of the recently defunct

Ghana Empire The Ghana Empire (), also known as simply Ghana, Ghanata, or Wagadu, was an ancient western-Sahelian empire based in the modern-day southeast of Mauritania and western Mali. It is uncertain among historians when Ghana's ruling dynasty began. T ...

, Soumaoro Kanté proceeded to conquer several neighboring states, including the

Mandinka people The Mandinka or Malinke are a West African ethnic group primarily found in southern Mali, The Gambia, southern Senegal and eastern Guinea. Numbering about 11 million, they are the largest subgroup of the Mandé peoples and one of the List of ethn ...

in what is now

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...

. However, the Mandinka prince

Sundiata Keita Sundiata Keita ( Mandinka, Malinke: ; 1217 – c. 1255, N'Ko spelling: ; also known as Manding Diara, Lion of Mali, Sogolon Djata, son of Sogolon, Nare Maghan and Sogo Sogo Simbon Salaba) was a prince and founder of the Mali Empire. He was als ...

built a coalition of smaller kingdoms to oppose him at the

Battle of Kirina The Battle of Kirina, also known as the Battle of Krina or siege of Karina ( 1235), was a confrontation between Sosso king Sumanguru Kanté and Mandinka prince Sundiata Keita. Sundiata Keita's forces roundly defeated those of Sumanguru Kanté, ...

(c. 1235.), defeating the Sosso and leaving Sundiata's new

Mali Empire The Mali Empire (Manding languages, Manding: ''Mandé''Ki-Zerbo, Joseph: ''UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. IV, Abridged Edition: Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century'', p. 57. University of California Press, 1997. or ''Manden ...

dominant in the region. Whether or not any of the deeds attributed to him actually happened as such, or even whether Kante existed at all, is debated by historians. Traditional oral histories provide a wide variety of information, some of which is contradictory and much that is obviously mythical.

Biography

Soumaoro Kanté is portrayed as a villainous sorcerer-king in the national epic of Mali, the

Epic of Sundiata ''Sunjata'' (; Manding languages: ''Sònjàdà'', also referred to as ''Sundiata'' or ''Son-Jara''; ; ) is an epic poem of the Malinke people that tells the story of the hero Sundiata Keita (died 1255), the founder of the Mali Empire. The ep ...

. After his defeat at Kirina, he flees into the mountains of

Koulikoro Koulikoro ( Bambara: ߞߎߟߌߞߏߙߏ tr. Kulikoro) is a town and urban commune in Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in A ...

, where he "disappears" after being shot with the only weapon to which he is vulnerable - an arrow with a white rooster spur arrowhead. In the

, Soumaoro Kanté is described as owning a

balafon The balafon (pronounced , or, by analogy with ''xylophone'' etc., ) is a gourd-resonated xylophone, a type of struck idiophone. It is closely associated with the neighbouring Mandé peoples, Mandé, Bwaba Bobo people, Bobo, Senufo people, Seno ...

with magical powers, which is stolen by Sundiata Keita's djeli, Balafasseke Kouyate, and brought to Manden. This is the origin of the Manden djeli tradition of

playing. The balafon of Soumaoro Kanté is said to be kept by the Kouyate family to this day in the village of

Niagassola Niagassola is a town and sub-prefecture in the Siguiri Prefecture in the Kankan Region of north-eastern Guinea. It is located near the border with Mali. It has no electricity and three water pumps. History Niagassola and its surroundings we ...

Guinea Guinea, officially the Republic of Guinea, is a coastal country in West Africa. It borders the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Guinea-Bissau to the northwest, Senegal to the north, Mali to the northeast, Côte d'Ivoire to the southeast, and Sier ...

. Soumaoro is viewed as one of the true champions of

Traditional African religion The beliefs and practices of African people are highly diverse, and include various ethnic religions.Encyclopedia of African Religion (Sage, 2009) Molefi Kete Asante Generally, these traditions are oral rather than scriptural and are passed do ...

due to his reputation in the epic as someone possessing extraordinary magical powers. According to Fyle, Soumaoro was the inventor of the balafon and the ''dan'' (a four-string guitar used by the hunters and griots).Fyle, Magbaily, ''Introduction to the History of African Civilization: Precolonial Africa'',

University Press of America University Press of America (''UPA'') is the former name of an American Academic publishing, academic publishing company based in Lanham, Maryland, which became the parent company of Rowman & Littlefield publishing house, then was later re-intr ...

(1999), p. 61,

/ref> As evidence of his supernatural powers, the

griot A griot (; ; Manding languages, Manding: or (in N'Ko script, N'Ko: , or in French spelling); also spelt Djali; or / ; ) is a West African historian, storyteller, praise singer, poet, and/or musician. Griots are masters of communicatin ...

Lansine Diabate notes, "At that time, owing to his magical powers, every fly which rested on the balafon of Soso he royal musician Sumaworo was able to find it out from a cloud of flies to kill it." Diabate goes on to say that it was when the balafon player first refused to play for the king that Soumaoro Kanté's demise was anticipated.

Notes

Bibliography

* Davidson, Basil. ''Africa in History''. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1995. * Charry, Eric. ''Mande Music: Traditional and Modern Music of the Maninka and Mandinka of Western Africa''. Chicago: Chicago Studies in Ethnomusicology, 2000. *Carruth, Gorton, ''The encyclopedia of world facts and dates,'' p 167, 1192 HarperCollins Publishers, 1993, *Stride, G. T & Ifeka, Caroline, ''Peoples and empires of West Africa: West Africa in history, 1000–1800,'' p 49, Africana Pub. Corp., 1971 * Editor: Senghor, Léopold Sédar, Éthiopiques, Issues 21-24, Grande imprimerie africaine, 1980, p 79 * Fyle, Magbaily, ''Introduction to the History of African Civilization: Precolonial Africa'',

(1999), p. 61,

External links

Sundiata and Mansa Musa on the Web
web directory {{DEFAULTSORT:Kante, Soumaoro Susu people Malian royalty Year of death unknown 13th-century monarchs in Africa Year of birth unknown