Sundiata: The Baobab Leaves Summary & Analysis

Sundiata learns that Soumaoro has invaded Mali and that Fakoli is putting up a good fight against him. Sogolon is still sick, Manding Bory is a lively 15-year-old, and Kolonkan is of marriageable age and takes care of cooking now that Sogolon is ill. At the market one day, Kolonkan notices a woman selling condiments and vegetables—ones that she recognizes from Niani, but are foreign to Mema. Kolonkan shares with the vendor that she's from Mali and her brother used to pick baobab leaves.

The vendor asks Kolonkan her brother's name, and Kolonkan gives it. A man joins the vendor and asks Kolonkan if Sogolon would receive the vendors. Kolonkan rushes to her mother, gives her the Malian condiments, and says the merchants would like to speak with her. Sogolon asks Kolonkan to fetch the merchants.

Manding Bory and Sundiata return from a hunt and Sogolon shows them the condiments from the market. Kolonkan returns with the merchants and Sogolon recognizes them as members of Maghan Kon Fatta's court. Mandjan Bérété, Sassouma's brother, explains that they left Mali two months ago to search for Sundiata. He says that Soumaoro has razed Mali and that Dankaran Touman fled Niani, leaving it without a leader. He continues that jinn have told soothsayers that only Sundiata can save Mali, and he implores Sundiata to return to Mali and fulfill his destiny.

Silence follows this speech. Sundiata breaks it and decides to speak with Moussa Tounkara about leaving the court of Mema as soon as the king returns from a visit to a neighboring village. The narrator says that Sundiata "was already king."

Moussa Tounkara returns at nightfall, but Sundiata doesn't attend his reception. Sundiata visits Sogolon before going to bed and finds her sick and feverish. In his own room, Sundiata asks God to allow him to bury his mother in Mema if he's going to succeed in retaking Mali. Sogolon dies the next morning, and Sundiata explains to the king that he must return to Mali after burying Sogolon.

Moussa Tounkara thinks that Sundiata is being ungrateful and tries to make Sundiata either take Sogolon's body with him to Mali or pay for the gravesite land. Sundiata offers to pay when he reaches Mali, but the king refuses. Sundiata leaves the king and returns a while later with a basket filled with pottery shards, feathers of birds, and straw. He offers it to the king and says that it's the price of the land.

Moussa Tounkara brushes the basket away, but one of his advisors implores the king to give Sundiata the land for burial. He says that the contents of the basket indicate that Sundiata will declare war on Mema if he's not granted the land, and the town site will be recognizable only by shards of pottery. Moussa Tounkara grants Sundiata the land, and Sundiata buries Sogolon.