Sundiata Alexander the Great's Legacy Term Paper

Several of Sudiata's features make him stand out as a uniquely Malian hero. He achieved his goals through the necessary assistance of shamans and sorceresses whose traditions are time-honored. Those shamanic references rest comfortably beside Muslim mythos and tradition. Religious belief, practice, and moral discourse in the Sundiata is a complex hybrid of shamanic and Muslim faiths. The blend is also evident in the diverse cultures of Western Africa that gave rise to the epic.

Muslim references and messages also add nuances to the epic, revealing much about the evolution of West African culture. The Sundiata is therefore a window into Malian and Ghanese cultures. For example, polygamy is one of the most salient themes of the Sundiata, one of the social trends that unite traditional African and Muslim cultures and which sets them apart from European, Greek, and Christian influences. The jealousies and betrayals that emerge within the polygamous social structure have a strong bearing on Sundiata's fate. He is sent into exile due to the conniving influence of one of his step-mothers.Just as in the Sundiata, sorcery and magic also play primary roles in the development of Greek heroes including the heroine Medea and in the ancient heroes of all cultures. Magic is portrayed as potentially dangerous: a gray area. Sundiata uses magic to his favor but some of the problems Sundiata must overcome are also due to black magic. Moreover, like Oedipus prophesy plays an important part in the character's life and in the development of the epic's plot. The magical arts are more central to the West African tale than they are in most classical Greek tales, making the Sundiata stand out as a quintessentially West African tale......