THE EPIC OF SUMANGURU KANTE - The Epic of Sumanguru Kante. Narrated by Abdulaye Sako, edited by Stephen P. D. Bulman and Valentin F. Vydrine. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2017. Pp. 172. $80.00, paperback (ISBN: 978-90-04-34796-0); $80.00, e-book (ISBN: 978-90-04-34933-9)

• Published in: Journal of African History Vol. 60; no. 2; pp. 316 - 319
• Main Author: CONRAD, DAVID C.
• Format: Book Review
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge Cambridge University Press 01.07.2019
• Subjects: African history; Bulman, Stephen P D; Literary translation; Musical instruments; Nonfiction; Power; Traditions; Vydrine, Valentin F; Mali; Africa
• ISSN: 0021-8537; 1469-5138
• DOI: 10.1017/S0021853719000604

Sogolon, Kamissa, Sumanguru's sister Kosiya, and other heroines emerge as classic paradigms of Mande power women (musofadiw).2 Fakoli Koroma, ridiculed as a dwarf and cuckolded by his uncle in Niane's account, is at the nexus of crucial events and alliances in other versions; he is lauded as a great general, ancestor of blacksmith clans and sorcerers, and — with a father from Manden and a mother from Soso — as a link between opposing sides.3 As for Sumanguru the Soso king and Sundiata's nemesis, he is limited in Niane's book to being a villainous tyrant sartorially inclined to garments of human skin. [...]as the post-1960s corpus of the Mande epic gradually emerged, the blacksmith king gained depth in episodes that described his mischievous youth, his obsession with musical instruments, his tragically flawed relationships with his sister Kosiya and his nephew Fakoli, his face-to-face encounters with both Sunjata and Sogolon, and his fretful consultations with his Komo oracle.4 Now, thanks to the book under review, we have a translation dedicated entirely to Sumanguru, with previously unknown episodes contributing important additional dimensions to his life, and to the overall corpus of the Mande epic. [...]the character of Sumanguru's sister Kangu (often referred to in other versions as Kosiya) — one of the most prominent heroines of the overall epic — is significantly expanded. [...]open to question is a note about a jinε whose ‘crippled state connotes powerlessness’ in light of evidence for Mande belief that physical deformities ‘signal the secret presence of occult powers’ (95n78).9 Elsewhere, the effectiveness of the book's exegesis would improve with documented sources instead of citations that refer to personal communication (43n154; 75n16; 83n41; 95n79; 96n81).