Throughout the history of literature, plot lines have often centered around the destiny of the main characters. Perhaps because we wonder about our own destinies, when we pick up a book or sit down to watch a movie or play, one of our primary concerns is the outcome for the people involved in the narrative – particularly if we have developed a degree of emotional connection with the character(s). It is no different in “Sundiata,” in which Sassouma Berete tries to keep her husband, Nare Maghan, from impregnating her; however, he gets her to faint through a trick, and ends up having sex with her. She tries magic to keep from delivering her son, but it does not work. As the epic puts it, “God has his mysteries which none can fathomeach man finds his way already marked out for him and he can change nothing of it.” The child is Sundiata. Even though his mother hates him, she gives him a strong education in human behavior, magic, medicinal herbs and superstitions. Behind his back, though, she is trying to convince the nine great witches of Mali to end her son’s life. Because she has no real cause, though, they refuse: “Life has a cause, and death as well. The one comes from the other. Your hate has a cause and your action must have a cause.” This relates to destiny, because the chain of cause and effect means that the events that happen in life were set in motion by a specific cause, and so they are destined to take place. Ultimately, despite his mother’s best attempts, Sundiata ends up taking power.
Works Cited
“Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali.” Web. Retrieved 23 March 2012 from
http://clio.missouristate.edu/jabidogun/niane1965.pdf
