Answer to Question #315514 in History for lenesa

Question

What can historians learn from the story of Sunjata's early life?

Answer 1

The epic of Sunjata begins with the hero's childhood. The son of the king of Manding, Sunjata was born under unusual circumstances. His mother was pregnant with him for eight years when a magical spirit called a jinni (or genie) told Sunjata's father that the boy would someday become a great king.Through this story, historians are able to understand chronicles the rise of the Empire of Mali, one of three great Sudanic empires2 that dominated the grasslands of northwestern Africa for over a thousand years