Fa-Digi Sisoko Analysis

Fa-Digi Sisoko is who tells the version o epic in our textbook Fata Magan the Handsome: father of Son-Jara, settles in Kamalen the center of the later Manding Kingdom. A jinni appears to Fata Magan and tells him he should wed an ugly maid who is with two youths; the ugly maid will bear him a son who will rule Manding. Magan 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 crawls for 9 years. Tanimunari, a jinn of Son-Jara takes him on the haj where he gains some abilities in magic. Berete's Omen Master has two rams, a black (representing Son-Jara) and a white (for Dankaran Tuma) do battle; the black wins and Berete's people kills both and put them into a well to hide the omen. Next the Omen Master says a toothless dog must be sacrificed to keep Son-Jara from walking. They pull a spotted dog's teeth with pliers. Son-Jara's "Muslim jinn" Tanimunari, predicts Son-Jara would rise and walk.
Son-Jara's mother cooks special food to help him walk. She tries to get baobab leaves from neighboring women who all refused to share theirs. Son-Jara orders a staff from the blacksmith patriarchs but can't use it to rise. A taller staff also fails. Then Sugulun makes a staff from a custard apple tree. With it he rises, then walks. He shakes a Baobab tree three times, each time shaking a boy out of the tree. The first breaks a leg, the second an arm, the third his neck. Son-Jara pulls up the tree and plants it in his mother's yard and tells her that from now on anyone wanting Baobab leaves will have to ask her permission, for she controls them all. Dankaran Tuman asks his mother not to disturb their family, but she kept plotting. Son-Jara takes a fierce dog with a weight around its neck . The dog tore up Dankaran Tuman's toothless dog. The Berete woman banishes 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 devastates the Manding kingdom ("put gourds in the mouths" of all), then sends two messengers Kankira-of-Silver and Kankira-of-Gold and 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 make it live again, then give it to the two Kankira messengers to return to Susu king Sumamuru. Son-Jara seeks refuge in Mema, where his mother prays a shea tree into bearing fruit for shea butter to feed Son-Jara's fetish (a magical object), then she dies. Son-Jara asks Prince Birama of Mema to give him the land to bury his mother. The prince asks for proper payment for such land. Son-Jara concocts an amulet--a leather pouch with plants, leaves, a knife, etc in it for payment. The prince calls his seers to examine the pouch. They declare it potent and say if the prince gave no land, Son-Jara would destroy the kingdom. So Son-Jara gets the land to bury his mother in Mema. Son-Jara takes his army to a river where he can't get across because Sumamuru had bribed Sadagalo the Tall, the boatman patriarch, not to allow Son-Jara across.
Son-Jara remembers that his mother had given the boatman her silver bracelet in exchange for a future favor, and Son-Jara calls in the favor to get across the river. Son-Jara attacks Sumamuru and is driven off. He then founds the town called Anguish. The second attack also fails, and he founds the town called Resolve. The third time he is driven off Son-Jara founds the town called Sharing. Son-Jara's sister Sugulun Kulunkan says she would help with the war. She goes to the Susu king who, in his arrogance, admits to her that he could be beat by a ritual involving digging up peanut plants and throwing them at a fortress. Sumamuru's mother warns him not to tell women such secrets. He cuts off his mother's breast, and she disowned him as her son. Kulunkan takes the information to her
brother. Sumamuru, who had a hundred wives, takes the one wife of his nephew, Fa-Koli. Enraged, Fa-Koli joins Son-Jara. Fa-Koli volunteers 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; he is the subject of a rival epic. The victors makes 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.

Parker, Sarah Epic of Son jara World Literature Co. 1982 Volume I