Alex rose, Sundiata Post

I really enjoyed reading Sundiata: The Lion King of Mali because more than anything it was entertaining and fast paced. I did wish the story was longer, but I understand that writing down an oral story typically results in a condensed story. I wished it was not quite as rushed because I would have liked more detail about his journey. The introduction was described nicely, and the lead up to the ending battle was also described in some detail, but the description in the middle was lacking. I felt like we leapfrogged around.

The story itself was fascinating. The boy goes from being crippled, into exile and then is able to rally all of the people he has ever met to recapture his rightful throne. After the fact they all worship him, even the ones who did not worship his father. Obviously, there are some serious fallacies in here, such as a crippled boy living as long as he did in the time that he did. Furthermore, the idea that people would rally around a boy who was travelling through their villages and follow him into battle is also a little bit far-fetched. Regardless, the message is very positive and a good thing for children to hear. The story promotes the idea that a person who is struggling in life can pull through and achieve their ultimate goal. I really enjoyed this because some of the other stories that we have read, like the original tale of Aladdin, promote traits that are very detrimental to society (e.g. selfishness in Aladdin).

One part of the story that I really struggled with was the family dynamics because of how similar the names were. This link: http://www.adversecamber.org/shows/the-old-woman-the-buffalo-and-the-lion-of-manding/characters-and-settings/ was quite helpful in gaining a basic understanding of the family tree and helped me understand all of the conflicts. Reading through the diagram helped me interpret the story quicker.

Comparing this to The Lion King it is easy to see how many people believe that Disney based his film off of this story. The general plot line is very similar, the rightful heir to the throne has it stolen from him by an evil villain (in this case it is a brother and not an uncle), the rightful heir then proceeds to get exiled from their homeland and go through a significant journey where they ultimately return and take back their throne and everyone in the valley loves their rightful leader. Disney obviously added their own style choices to the original story to fit it into their genre. They simplified the plot line a lot by removing the intermediate king and, if my memory is correct (which it very well may not be), spent a lot more time focusing on the journey of Simba to emphasize different themes and morals.

One part of the story that I enjoyed was the “verbal jousting” that is written in as the dialogue during the final battle. It sounds bad, but I kind of laughed when Soumaoro says “I am the poisonous mushroom” because I really just did not understand how that could be intimidating.