Cortes And Sundiata Comparison Essay

Most leaders conquer through triumphs to become successful in battling against their enemies. With the qualities they developed, they are being admired by where they came from and calling themselves “heroes.” The success of the two defeaters, Sundiata and Cortes, are both demonstrated by different perspectives of someone one else that is telling their stories. In the epic Sundiata, a griot, Djeli Mamoudou Kouyaté, carries on stories by learning tradition and passing them on for other generations to acknowledge. Djeli Mamoudou Kouyaté signifies Sundiata’s success from when he started out as a crippled boy and not being able to walk until the age of seven to develop into a distinguished warrior defeating his enemy, Soumaoro Kanté. As a result, he is

explaining Sundiata’s obstacles in his childhood to get to where he was. From Bernal Diaz’s viewpoint in The New Conquest of New Spain, Cortes’ and his Spanish Conquistadors planned to take over and expand Spain’s empire by giving Spain power, spreading their religion, and acquiring tons of treasure resources from the cities they pass by. Although the explanation of Sundiata and Cortés’ successes convey minor similarities, the differences between their accomplishments are clearly shown through the their theme of religion.
The epic, Sundiata, shows the mix of the two religions, Islam and the African traditional religion. First obstacle Sundiata overcomes in his standing up for the first time was by “supporting himself on his knees and one hand, with the other hand he picked up the lion bar without any effort” and “strengthened up and was on his feet at one go” (Niane, 20-21). Sundiata’s mother seems to be more of a connected character towards the Islam religion. After finding out her son was able to walk, she was thanking God that her son is no longer crippled anymore, so she sings to him “Oh day, what a beautiful day,/ Oh day, day of joy;/ Allah Almighty, you never created a finer day./ So my son is going to walk!” (Niane, 21).
Other than Sundiata’s mother relation to Islam, religion also played a big part of the development of Sundiata’s destiny and success. His story emphasizes the blend of Islam and the native religion that deals with natural phenomena. From both viewpoints, Sundiata uses his magic power for good and to prove that he was not afraid to defeat his enemy, who was planning on killing him. The supernatural force led Sundiata to believe that “he was striding towards a great destiny” that God has mapped out for him (Niane, 29).
In The Conquest of New Spain, the Spaniards set a plan to conquer lands that were already owned by the native Indians. They were fine with making allies to the natives of Americans, but to the Indians, they viewed them as savages after they ended up “attack[ing] [them] so violently that [they] could not endure it” (Diaz, 144). Besides attaining riches, there was a sense of superiority when it comes to culture and religion. The Spaniards were highly religious people and wanted to convert Indians to Christianity if they wanted to save their lives. Getting gold during the conquest was one factor for their desire of wealth, but spreading their religion showed that the Spaniards had no consideration for the other religions in the area they were conquering. They felt that Christianity was the only true religion. After every time they have a victory in the war, they are always “thank[ing] God for delivering [them] from great danger” (Diaz, 146).
Between the explanations of Sundiata and Cortes’ success, their similarity is based on being monotheists through their journey. In Sundiata, the primary religion is Islam, and most of the people believe in one god. When people are talking about “Allah,” they are making known for the God of Islam. Sundiata is also mentioning a single god when he “thank[ed] God on returning to Mali” (Niane, 79). Similarly, The Spaniards in The Conquest of New Spain are always expressing their gratitude to just one god and accepting that “God has given [them] victory in each battle, great and small, since [they] had left Cuba” (Diaz, 157). Furthermore, Kouyaté and Diaz’s perspectives toward religion for Sundiata and Cortes seems like they are repeatedly praising to their own God after something fortunate happens to them.
Despite Sundiata and Cortes exemplifying connection of being a monotheist, the way they believed in their religion is behaved differently.

Sundiata have more respect to the religion of Islam. However, Islam was not the only religion shown in Sundiata. One of the “two spiritual principles” that is mostly shown in the epic are the Jinns, which is one of the African tradition religion that deals with magic and witchcraft. (Niane, 88) In the end of the epic, Sundiata defeated his enemy, who is a “a great sorcerer,” by using his bow and arrow to take away his enemy’s magic. As a result, this shows that Sundiata appears to accept and feel comfortable about the two religions not belonging together, but they somehow fit the moment at hand. On the other hand, Bernel Diaz gives an impression of not showing any respect towards any other religions except their own. They felt that they were superior enough to spread Christianity and forcefully convert Indians. Diaz also shows the signs of over exaggerating when he said, “Our Lord has been pleased to help us in the past we have hope that He may do so in the future.” This shows that they are putting so much trust in God and believing that He is the reason why they are winning

battles.
Overall, Djeli Mamoudou Kouyaté’s explanation of Sundiata’s success is more different than Bernel Diaz’s explanation of Cortes’ success shown through religion. Kouyaté first explains Sundiata’s hardships in his childhood and how God helped him in the end to return to Mali. Diaz shows that they are always depending on God throughout their conquest. Even though Sundiata and Cortes are both monotheists, they treat their religion in a different manner from two distinct perspectives.