Answer to Question #309797 in History for rinoko

Question

Drawing on Gordon Innes’s introduction to Sunjata, explain whether the Sunjata Epic is a useful historical source

Answer 1

Yes, it is a useful historical source because the griot recollection of Sundiata who is known to have been a real person is far more specific than any other historical source that has survived from this era. Secondly, The reference derived from oral testimony that was most probably an early form of the epic. Ibn Khaldun’s work was not printed until the middle of the 19th century and consequently had little impact on Western scholarship before the later 19th century, so Europeans had no foreknowledge of Mari Jata or Sunjata when they began to visit West Africa. The growing fascination with the African interior, trade, and imperial competition prompted Europeans to increase their direct contact with the West African interior during the 19th century, after centuries of coastal trade and settlement.