Naré Maghann Konaté was a 12th-century faama (king) of 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 today

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 ...

. He was the father of

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 ...

, founder of the

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 ...

, and a character in the

oral tradition Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication in which knowledge, art, ideas and culture are received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another.Jan Vansina, Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (19 ...

of 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 ...

.Takacs, Sarolta Anna; Cline Eric H.,"The Ancient World." Volumes 1-5.

Routledge Routledge ( ) is a British multinational corporation, multinational publisher. It was founded in 1836 by George Routledge, and specialises in providing academic books, academic journals, journals and online resources in the fields of the humanit ...

(2015), p. 68,

(retrieved 29 April 2024)Fauvelle, François-Xavier, "Les masques et la mosquée - L empire du Mâli XIIIe XIVe siècle." (Contributor: François-Xavier Fauvelle), CNRS editions (2022), p. 19,

(retrieved 29 April 2024)Editors: Conrad, David C.; Condé, Djanka Tassey, "Sunjata: A West African Epic of the Mande Peoples." Hackett Publishing (2004), pp. xxxv, xxii, 202,

The Epic of Sundiata

In the Epic of Sundiata, Naré Maghann Konaté (also called Farako Manko Farakonken, Maghan Kon Fatta or Maghan the Handsome) was a Mandinka king who one day received a divine hunter at his court. The hunter predicted that if Konaté married an ugly woman, she would give him a son who would one day be a mighty king. Naré Maghann Konaté was already married to Sassouma Bereté and had a son by her, Dankaran Touman Keïta. However, when two Traoré hunters from the Dô kingdom presented him an ugly, hunchbacked woman named Sogolon Condé, he remembered the prophecy and married her. She soon gave birth to a son, Sundiata, who was unable to walk throughout most of his childhood until 7 years old (other sources say 10 years old). After Naré Maghann Konaté's death (c. 1218 ), his first son, Dankaran Toumani Keita, assumed the throne despite Konaté's wishes that the prophecy be respected. Sundiata nonetheless overcame both his handicap and his brother's scorn to eventually defeat the Sosso invader Soumaoro Kanté, thus ensuring the Mandinka's dominance over the region in the form of the Mali Empire.Sisòkò, Fa-Digi, "The Epic of Son-Jara: A West African Tradition." African Epic. African epic series /Thomas A. Hale and John W. Johnson éd. African studies folklore. Translator, editor, & contributor: John William Johnson).

Indiana University Press Indiana University Press, also known as IU Press, is an academic publisher founded in 1950 at Indiana University that specializes in the humanities and social sciences. Its headquarters are located in Bloomington, Indiana. IU Press publishes ...

(1992), pp. 100-102,

The Epic of Sundiata

See also

Notes and references

Further reading