The Epic of Son Jara

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The Epic of Son-Jara

Fa-Digi Sisoko is the bard who recites the version of the epic in our textbook

Fata Magan the Handsome: father of Son-Jara, settled Kamalen (the center of the later Manding Kingdom). A jinn appeared to Fata Magan and told him he should wed an ugly maid who is with two youths; the ugly maid will bear him a son who will rule Manding. Gives his sister, Nakana Taliba (later appears as a principal Queen of Darkness), and a rare token in exchange for Sugulun Konde, the ugly maid.

Sugulun Konde (called "the Konde woman): the ugly maid, mother of Son-Jara, traveling with the Taraweres, who trade her for Nakana Taliba.

Saman Berete ("the Berete woman"): gives birth to Dankaran Tuman just before Sugulun Konde births Son-Jara.

News of Son-Jara's birth reaches Fata Magan first and he declares him heir, though Tuman is the elder by a few hours.

Son-Jara (also called Biribiriba, Nare Magan Konate, Sugulun's Ma'an, King of Nyani): born with hair all over body and thus got the name "lion thief."

Cursed by the holy man of Berete, Son-Jara crawled for 9 years. Tanimunari, a jinn of Son-Jara took him to haji where he gained some abilities in magic. Berete's Omen Master had two rams, a black (representing Son-Jara) and a white (for Dankaran Tuma) do battle; the black won and Berete's people killed both and put them into a well to hide the omen. Next the Omen Master said a toothless dog must be sacrificed to keep Son-Jara from walking. They pulled a spotted dog's teeth with pliers.

Son-Jara's "Muslim jinn" Tanimunari, predicted Son-Jara would rise and walk. Son-Jara's mother cooked special food to help him walk. She tried to get baobab leaves from neighboring women who all refused to share theirs. Son-Jara ordered a staff from the blacksmith patriarchs but couldn't use it to rise. A taller staff also failed. Then Sugulun made a staff from a custard apple tree. With it he rose, then walked. He shook a Baobab tree three times, each time shaking a boy out of the tree. The first broke a leg, the second an arm, the third his neck. Son-Jara pulled up the tree and planted it in his mother's yard and told her that from now on anyone wanting Baobab leaves had to ask her permission, for she controlled them all.

Dankaran Tuman asked his mother not to disturb their family. She kept plotting. Son-Jara took a fierce dog with a weight around its neck (to tame it?). The dog tore up Dankaran Tuman's toothless dog. The Berete woman banished Son-Jara with his mother and 2 siblings (sister Sugulun Kulukan, who later helped defeat Sumamuru by becoming his mistress and learning the magic that could defeat him; also brother Manden Bukari).

Wherever Son-Jara and family go, they are thrown out. They go to the nine Queens-of-Darkness, which include Nakana Taliba.

Dankaran Tuman becomes Manding king; he tries to placate a powerful enemy, Sulu king Sumamuru (who becomes chief antagonist for Son-Jara) by sending his first-born daughter, Caress-of-Hot-Fire to be one of Sumamuru's wives. Also, Tuman sends Doka the Cat, who had been Son-Jara's personal bard, to Sumamuru to placate him.

Susu Mountain Sumamuru is often referred to as wearing pants and coat of human skin (to show his fierceness). Sumamuru asks Doka the Cat to serve him but is refused, so he cuts the Achilles tendons on the bard and forces him into service. Then Sumamuru goes to war with Tuman, who loses and flees into exile. Sumamuru devastated the Manding kingdom ("put gourds in the mouths" of all), then sent with two messengers, Kankira-of-Silver and Kankira-of-Gold, a red bull to the nine Queens-of-Darkness as a bribe for them to kill Son-Jara. Nakana Tililba warns Son-Jara of the bribe. He turns himself into a lion, nabs nine water buffalos as gifts for the nine witches. Impressed that he gives nine buffalo and Sumamuru gave only one red bull, the witches stack the pieces of the red bull into one pile and made it live again, then gave it to the two Kankira messengers to return to Susu king Sumamuru.

Son-Jara sought refuge in Mema, where his mother prayed a shea tree into bearing fruit for shea butter to feed Son-Jara's fetish (a magical object), then she died. Son-Jara asked Prince Birama of Mema to give him the land to bury his mother. The prince asked for proper payment for such land. Son-Jara concocted an amulet--a leather pouch with plants, leaves, a knife, etc in it for payment. The prince called his seers to examine the pouch. They declared it potent and said if Prince gave no land, Son-Jara would destroy the kingdom. So Son-Jara got the land to bury his mother in Mema.

Son-Jara took his army to a river where he couldn't get across because Sumamuru had bribed Sadagalo the Tall, the boatman patriarch, not to allow Son-Jara across. Son-Jara remembered that his mother had given the boatman her silver bracelet in exchange for a future favor, and Son-Jara called in the favor to get across the river.

Son-Jara attacked Sumamuru and was driven off. He then founded the town called Anguish. The second attack was the same and he founded the town called Resolve. The third time he was driven off, Son-Jara founded the town called Sharing.

Son-Jara's sister Sugulun Kulunkan said she would help with the war. She went to the Susu king who, in his arrogance, admitted to her that he could be defeated only by a ritual involving uprooting peanut plants and throwing them at a fortress. Sumamuru's mother warned him not to tell women such secrets. He cut off his mother's breast and she disowned him as her son. Kulunkan took the information to her brother.

Sumamuru, who had a hundred wives, took the one wife of his nephew, Fa-Koli. Enraged, Fa-Koli joined Son-Jara. Fa-Koli volunteered to perform the magic ritual for destroying Sumamuru learned by Kulunkan. He does so and also uses magic darts to draw out the Susu forces, who are defeated by Son-Jara and his generals. The generals surround Sumamuru with swords and he "dried up on the spot." The bard notes that he is still revered by his people and the footnote says he is the subject of a rival epic.

The victors made Sumamuru's son, Mansa Saman, carry Doka the Cat on his shoulders both as honor to Doka the Cat and as humiliation to Mansa Saman.

In the mop-up campaign, Son-Jara says he will lead the army against a king in Dark Jolof land. One general, Tura Magan, is so disappointed he digs his grave and gets in it. Son-Jara goes to him and gives him the leadership of the mop-up army. Tura Magan kills the rival kings, one of whom had stolen Son-Jara's horses and sent him dogs in their stead (an insult). The epic ends with the kingdom united.