Sundiata: Lion King of Mali

From the very beginning of the story, drama is going down. There is no lull where the protagonist is
living an easy life, only to have it taken away from him, Sundiata literally starts out crippled, unable
to walk on two legs. It is quite interesting that in the title he is called the lion king, since no where in
the story are lions referred to. My guess is that since he walked on four legs for the first part of his life,
he resembled a lion, and therefore was the ‘lion king’. I think it would have made more sense for him to
be called the rooster king, since that is who he emulated to defeat the other king. I think the drama
resulting from prophecies, jealous wives, and desired power, is very shakespearean, even if it is not
hamlet. I also think it resembles many of the greek mythologies. When the word ‘griot’ came up, I had
to look up what it meant, since I had no idea. This article provides a thorough and interesting personal
explanation. I think it is funny that even though it was the dying king’s wish for Sundiata to become the
next king, the first wife still got her way. Also, her relief that Sundiata is ugly and lazy and gluttonous,
was quite interesting, since her son would already be king, also those words were very descriptive for
a three year old child. The exile of Sundiata is the most similar plot point to the lion king movie, aside
from the death of his father, although they are connected. This exile was the ‘transforming’ moment for
Sundiata. He learned to hunt and fight and wield proverbs, a fancy way of saying he is persuasive, I
suppose. It’s like the origin story of Batman. In fact, coming back to reclaim his domain is also very
batman-like.

I think it is interesting how the progression of griot character escalates. She starts off as being an
object, the gift to Sundiata before his father’s death. Then her wits and cleverness are shown as she
is able to evade the other king and give Sundiata the key to his defeat. It’s interesting that Sundiata’s
mother dies before he gets home, but in the Disney movie she does not actually die, a favorite move
for Disney. I suppose this might be an attempt to keep with the hamlet plot line, as his mother plays a
significant role as the new wife of his uncle. While the protagonist is not an animal (despite being called
the lion king) animals do play a significant role in the story, as snakes, owls, roosters, buffalos, oxen,
and rams are all mentioned, and are of varying amounts of importance to the plot. The roast battle
between Sundiata and Soumaoro is quite hilarious. They are both escalating the metaphors they are
using in order to intimidate and out-roast the other. Instead of describing an epic fight scene, an epic
battle of words is shown instead, perhaps since the medium in which the story is portrayed is through
words.