Sassouma Bereté (or ''Berete'') was the first wife of the 13th century King of
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 ...
Maghan Kon Fatta
Maghan I (1280s – 1341), also known as Magha or, in oral traditions, Maghan Soma Burema Kein was the tenth mansa of the Mali Empire, following his father Kankan Musa I's death in 1337. He was left in charge of the empire, at least nominally, d ...
, 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 ...
.
Information Source
Everything that is known about Sassouma came from the
Epic of Sundiata Keita (the first Emperor 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 ...
), passed down by
Mandinka
Mandinka, Mandika, Mandinkha, Mandinko, or Mandingo may refer to:
Media
* Mandingo (novel), ''Mandingo'' (novel), a bestselling novel published in 1957
* Mandingo (film), ''Mandingo'' (film), a 1975 film based on the eponymous 1957 novel
* ''Man ...
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 ...
s since the 13th century.
Life
As the co-wife of
Sogolon Condé
Sogolon Wulen Condé Akyeampong, Emmanuel Kwaku; and Gates, Jr., Professor Henry Louis; "Dictionary of African Biography, Volumes 1-6." (contributors and editors: Emmanuel Kwaku Akyeampong, Professor Henry Louis Gates, Jr.), OUP USA (2012), p. ...
, she is reported to have been very resentful of Sogolon, and used to humiliate her openly for giving birth to a deformed son (Sundiata Keita).
After the death of Naré Maghann, she feared that Sogolon's would usurp the throne of her own son,
Dankaran Touman
Dankaran Touman (Manding languages: ''Dànkàràn Túmá'') was the first son of Naré Maghann Konaté (father of Sundiata Keita, founder and first Emperor of the Mali Empire in the 13th century) in the Malian epic of Sundiata. He was also the ...
, and thus plotted with her son to kill Sundiata Keita.
Sogolon, fearing for the safety of her children, left
Niani, and lived in exile with her children.
''"Mali's Boy-King: A Thirteenth-Century African Epic Becomes Digital"'', By Ronica Roth (in NEH) : Humanities, July/August 1998, Volume 19/Number 4
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Reputation
In the epic, Sassouma Bereté is regarded as "politically ambitious", and a "despised wife" who contravenes the social norms of Mande society.[ Deme Mariam Konaté, "Heroism and the Supernatural in the African Epic", Taylor & Francis (2010), p 144,]
(Retrieved : 20 July 2012)
Notes
Keita family
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