There's something about opening a picture book and feeling the nostalgia of my childhood coming back. Though this story is short it tells a powerful historical event. The tale of Sundiata and his quest to rule Mali covers all of the essential points to telling a good story. We can see this in the form of the Hero's Journey. For example, Sundiata's supernatural aid comes with his birth. As the King's griot predicted, "the son of the lion and the buffalo will be mighty indeed!" Spoil Alert: He was right.
Disney is notorious for remaking fairy tales and spinning them into to happy stories, but they claim their Lion King is completely their own. Clearly, this sparked outrage and fans point to a multitude of stores as the origin. Sundiata defintely is included in this debate. Their story lines are very similar, but this might be because they both follow the Hero's Journey so closely. And while it may seem eriely similar to Sundiata's tale due to the lions, Disney has plenty of movies that involve animals with human-like characteristics.
When Sundiata was a boy, he was teases and ignored for his inability to walk and talk. They laughed because they didn't understand how this kid was fortold to be a king when he couldn't do the bare minimum to survive. His father's first wife rejoiced in this because her son was the heir. A major difference in this story however, is her son isn't the villain. While Sassouma Berete, the wife, did essentially hire some witches to kill Sundiata, the son did nothing in this. (Also, killing someone over borrowing some spices is a tad extreme.) His mother choose for him to be king, and Sundiata and his mother fled to protect themselves and let Sundiata grow up. The villain in this story is Sumanguru, a greedy, sorcerer king that ruled over Sosso. He decides to take over Mali, and thats when Sundiata sought help to defend his childhood home. Thankfully, Sundiata's closest friend, Balla Fasseke, taught him the sorcerer's weakness, the spur of a white roster.
Love is a real emotion in this story. Sunidata's father fell in love with his mother and the bromance between Sundiata and his griot was genuine. Something I found quite refreshing though, was the absence of romance for Sundiata. His story revolves around his brave actions. His rewarding by becoming a king as opposed to winning a beautiful wife. The characters have personalities and goals.(Sorry Nala. You'll get some love next week) Sundiata fought for purely unselfish motives.
No comments:
Post a Comment