Sunjata Sparknotes

An interesting aspect of reading Sunjata is that it allows the reader to get a glimpse into the past. An unmissable trait that the story brings up is the power and control that women hold within their marriages and families overall. Part of this power comes from the West African people carrying on their family through a matrilineal system. Familial ties are a significant motif in Sunjata with even the storyteller tracing his ancestry back to the strong women told about in the oral tale. The matrilineal system means that instead of children taking the name of their father, as seen in many European societies, they would take the name of their mother and hold closer to the ties of her ancestors. This system allows for a sense of feminism to sprinkle all over the story of Sunjata and, ultimately, on the

Mande culture. Sunjata’s mother shows that all throughout the tale, strong women are a force to be reckoned with. A reason why the women are allowed to show their dominant personalities could be because they live in a hunter-gatherer society. Throughout history, hunter-gatherer societies have proved to exhibit more egalitarian gender relations. In Sunjata, the subject of gender roles stands out because the story is from so long ago, yet, the women are the stars of the story (besides Sunjata). Women taking the power is due in part to their ways of living in West Africa. Having a matrilineal system and a hunter-gatherer society is certainly used to the women’s advantage when obtaining equal treatment with the men in their lives.
While many women show power in Sunjata, none shows more than Sogolon Wulen Condé, who is the mother of Sunjata. As she grew up with a severe deformity from being set on her sister’s “sorcery horse when she was too young,” she learned how to extract greatness from her misfortunes (Conrad, p. 43). When she marries Maghan Konfara, the resilience she gains from navigating her whole life as an outsider pushes her to lead in her marriage and her role as a mother. After Sunjata is born, Maghan’s other wives, “gathered together again under the Mande baobab tree. They said, “It is one thing to give birth to a son, and another thing for him to survive” (Conrad, p. 74). They used their dalilu to make Sunjata crippled for seven years. Since Sogolon had already had experience with being deformed and ridiculed herself, she decides to take her children into exile (Conrad, p. 88). Making a decision about family life such as that to leave a village where you grow up and live your whole life is something only an immensely strong and independent woman could do.
The polygamous marriages seen in Sunjata provide a way for independence to be brought out of the women in the story.

One man having many wives may seem like something that would happen in a male-dominated society, but while the men are spending time and doing things for one wife, the other wives are left to fend for themselves and their children. When Sogolon Wulen Condé cannot conceive because she has been vexed by the other wives of her husband, Maghan Konfara, she convinces her husband to take on another wife to have a child with. He ends up giving into her demands and marries another woman. While Sunjata is not actually born from this tie, the reader can see that Maghan Konfara is willing to respect his wife and listen to her input on such an impactful topic. Women are seen in the story has having a profound effect on the world around them, instead of just being used as a wife and mother. In this culture, they have more of a say. While not downplaying this system, it is critical to note that the polygamous marriages put in practice in the story of Sunjata would possibly complicate a patrilineal system, which is why the Mande peoples follow a matrilineal way

instead.
The matrilineal way of tracing ancestors shows the importance of females straight away in this particular version of Sunjata as an oral story tradition. The storyteller is named Djanka Tassey Condé and can trace his ancestors back to the women in the epic. Many societies use a patrilineal system to name newborns and keep track of family because most societies are patriarchal. The fact that Mande culture uses names differently suggests their willingness to show the importance of women. In the introduction to the story, the author writes, “In Manding epic tradition, the greatest heroes do not acquire their special powers from their fathers. It is the mothers who are perceived as the source of their sons’ greatness, and these women invariably suffer hardships before the hero is born” (Conrad, p. xxi). It is fascinating to think that hundreds of years ago, there is a culture who recognizes the significance of mothers on their children’s lives and how that could be connected to the grit the mother has gained while dealing with the sufferings in her life. The Mande culture has a systematic way of recording the spirit of the women’s brawn. While not downplaying this system, it is critical to note that the polygamous marriages put in practice in the story of Sunjata would possibly complicate a patrilineal system, which is why the Mande peoples do not follow that way of tracing their histories.
Another reason why the Mande people are more of an egalitarian society are because they live in a hunter-gatherer community. A study published in Science, a scientific journal, says that early hunter-gatherer societies had more equal gender roles as an evolutionary advantage. It was an advantage because the places in which men and women chose to live and have their families would be less influenced by the husband or wife alone, which would increase the number of people from different familial lines that would be around each other, thus causing more genetic variation and less inbreeding (Devlin, n.p). While the men did usually do most of the manual labor and hunting and women do the gathering of crops and childrearing, the amount of their responsibilities were usually around the same. This would be true of the people in Sunjata and explains how the society allows women to be more a part of the community.
To conclude, the gender roles in the part of West Africa where the story Sunjata is from is unlike older European societies in that there is feminism ingrained in the early culture. Throughout the reading, the main woman who exhibits traits of fierce strength, confidence, and power is Sogolon Wulen Condé, Sunjata’s mother. She makes life-altering decisions for herself and her family. This way of living for Mande women is backed up by a system that supports women. Having polygamous marriages, matrilineal ways of tracing ancestors, and a hunter-gatherer society made it easier for women to assert themselves and be equal to the men in their lives.