Storytelling and Memory Theme Analysis

It's important to remember that the story of Sundiata is a transcription of an epic poem that is part of West African oral tradition—it was intended to be heard, rather than read. Furthermore, the original poem was told in verse, while the written English translation is in prose, and the poem was traditionally accompanied by a balafon, a type of wooden xylophone. Thus, the English translation of Sundiata is far from the story’s traditional—and intended—form. While characters in Sundiata proclaim oral storytelling to be the only true way for a culture to remember its history and connect with the past, these assertions are complicated by the fact that English language readers are receiving this message (and the story overall) via text on the page.

The narrator, griot (professional storyteller) Mamoudou Kouyaté, returns again and again to assertions of the power of stories and, by proxy, the power of the griots tasked with telling stories. Griots don't exist simply to entertain; they carry the memories and the history of their culture, and as such, they are guardians of memory and they are extremely powerful advisors to kings. While griots are in charge of remembering history and relating it to others, they're also tasked with deciding what events and people should become part of stories (and therefore earn a place in cultural memory), and how exactly to tell these stories. Storytelling, then, becomes a way to memorialize people and influence power. Storytelling can also be used as punishment, in that it can immortalize evil acts or make sure that certain people and places are forgotten. While Soumaoro and his city Sosso are physically wiped from the landscape, Mamoudou Kouyaté makes it clear that Soumaoro's evil shouldn't be forgotten so that it may not be repeated, but the ruins of Sosso must never be remembered or revisited.

Mamoudou Kouyaté is also concerned with the differences between written history and oral history. He asserts that the primary difference lies in how written and oral histories enhance or hinder memory. Mamoudou Kouyaté claims that cultures that record their histories in writing exist separately from their history. Essentially, while he sees that writing makes history more accessible, writing also keeps history at arm's length. Oral history, on the other hand, is treated as living and breathing, and the process of speaking or hearing the stories keeps them fresh and present in modern life. This divide between written and spoken history creates tension, as the reader is never allowed to forget that Mamoudou Kouyaté isn't necessarily a proponent of reading Sundiata. His obvious disdain for the written word turns the act of reading Sundiata into an almost inappropriate pursuit; the reader must consider what there is to gain from reading the epic, since the narrator is convinced that a reader, by definition, cannot fully grasp the meaning of the story.

However, it’s important to consider that Sundiata has become a prolific piece of literature worldwide because it was transcribed and distributed in its written form. Its audience and readership has expanded many times over, though the story itself has become standardized and devoid of the small changes that inevitably happen when a story is spoken exclusively. Mamoudou Kouyaté clearly sees this a deficit; at the story's close, he implores the reader to actually visit Mali and experience the history and legacy of Sundiata in real time, rather than through the pages and distance of a book.