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Naming : The Cornerstone Of Hero Identity Construction Essay

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Matthias Smith Professor Matt H. Brown African Studies 270 19 December 2014 Naming: The Cornerstone of Hero Identity Construction Hero identity within Bamba Suso’s The Sunjata Epic of the Mandinka People of West Africa and D.T. Niane’s Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali is the driving force that propels the hero forward in his conquest. While past scholarly research on these two epics including Siendou Konate’s “Violence in Two Epics: A Comparative Study of Chaka and Sundiata” has emphasized rites of passage on the creation of hero identity, it has neglected the importance of naming on the formation of such identity. From my reading of Sundiata and Sunjata, naming acts as a catalyst by changing the hero’s identity during transformational moments within the texts. Furthermore, the lack of attention on the way in which naming constructs the hero’s identity presents an avenue for further inquiry within both Suso and Niane’s versions of the epic. Through a literary analysis of Niane’s Sundiata and Suso’s Sunjata, I will demonstrate that the names bestowed upon Sundiata and Sunjata by their respective griots during transformational moments within the text sculpt each protagonist’s heroic identity. The heroic identity of Niane’s Sundiata is fashioned through titles prior to the story of his birth. In the opening pages of Sundiata, naming is used by griot Djeli Mamoudou Kouyate in establishing the identity of the hero. In depicting Sundiata as a "hero of many names," with names

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