AFRICAN ORAL EPIC POETRY Praising the Deeds of a Mythic Hero by Fritz H. Pointer With a translation of The Epic ofK ambili (as recited by Seydou Camara, the griot) Translated from Mande into English by Charles 8. Bird with Mamadou Koita and Bourama Soumaoro With a Foreword by Daniel Kunene The Edwin Mellen Press Lewiston•Queenston•Lampeter Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Pointer, Fritz H. African oral epic poetry : praising the deeds of a mythic hero I by Fritz H. Pointer ; with a translation ofThe epic ofKambili (as recited by Seydou Camara) ; translated from Mande in English by Charles S. Bird, with Mamadou Koita and Bourama Soumaoro ; with a foreword by Daniel Kunene. p.cm. English, with English translation from Mandingo Published in 2012, with Pointer rather than Byrd credited as translator, under the title: A translation into English of the epic ofKambili (an African mythic hero). Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-13: 978-0-7734-4087-6 (hardcover) ISBN-10: 0-7734-4087-9 (hardcover) 1. Epic poetry, Mandingo. 2. Epic poetry, African. 3. Mandingo poetry Translations into English. 4. Oral tradition-Africa, West. 5. Griots--Aftica, West. 6. Heroes-Mythology-Africa, West. I. Bird, Charles S. (Charles Stephen), 1935- ll. Koita, Mamadou. ill. Soumaoro, Bourama. IV. Kamara, Seyidu. Kambili.Title. English. V. Pointer, Fritz H. Translation into English of the epic ofKambili (an African mythic hero). VI. Title. PL8491.7.P65 2013 896.345-dc23 2012038968 horssbie. A CIP catalog record for this book is available from the British Library. Copyright ~ 2013 Fritz H. Pointer All rights reserved. For information contact The Edwin Mellen Press The Edwin Mellen Press Box450 Box67 Lewiston, New York Queenston, Ontario USA 14092-0450 CANADA LOS 1L O The Edwin Mellen Press, Ltd. Lampeter, Ceredigion, Wales UNITED KINGDOM SA48 8LT Printed in the United States of America I dedicate this book to my family who support and sustain me in so many ways, often without knowing it: Liziwe (Liz, Lizzie) Boitumelo Kunene-Pointer, my partner; Aaron Elton Pointer, my brother; Leona Dones-Pointer, his wife; my sisters, Ruth, Anita and Bonnie and June Pointer; my children, Shegun, Nandi, Somori and Thiyane Pointer and my granddaughters, Jadah Pointer-Wallace and Selina Pointer-Fox AnAneedote A three year old came up to his parents on the beach with his sand bucket full of water. "Here's the Ocean, Daddy," he said. That attitude is understandable in a three-year-old, but not so much so when a thirty year-old comes up with a set of ideas and says "Here is the 1ruth!" You want to say to him, "That may be your ocean, brother, but there is a lot more where that came from, and it's not in your bucket!" Contents Foreword by Emeritus Professor Daniel P. Kunene i Preface iii Acknowledgments xi mtroouoooo 1 Chapter One-Some Background on the Epic ............ 3 Chapter Two-Griots and Griottes: Composers and Performers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29 Chapter Three-Kambili and History .................. 47 Chapter Four-The Hero of the Epic ................... 57 Chapter Five-Poet and Accompanists ................. 67 Chapter Six-Mooes and Methods of Composition in K.ambili . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77 Chapter Seven-Praise Songs, Traditional Religion and Islam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Chapter Eight-Birth, Tasks and Triumph ofKambili 111 Chapter Nine-In Praise of Kambili Sananfila 123 Chapter Ten-The Story: A Synopsis 159 The Epic ofK ambili 163 Bibliography ..................................... 287 mdex. .......................................... 295 Foreword Epic? What's that? European scholars have often gone to cultures they sought to research with preconceived notions and expectations ofw hat to find, often based on their own cultures. Till recently, they understandably threw up their arms in despair, declaring a "lack" of this or that feature they were mistakenly looking for. But now things have changed quite a bit. Ruth Finnegan stirred up the hornets' nest by coming up with a "lack" regarding the epic in Africa in her Oral Literature in Africa! There were protests and "proofs" galore that she was wrong. Some good things were coming out of her audacious statement: Scholars rose up in arms, and in the process found, or revisited, lots ofe pics that needed to be revisited, exposed, translated, examined and analyzed. One such warrior scholar was Professor Fritz Pointer who researched the epic of Kambili. Though not the first to study this epic, he nonetheless added his voice to the chorus that directly or by implication declared Finnegan wrong. Among other things, Pointer underscores the importance of John William Johnson's declaration that The Greek [epic] tradition is only one ofm any. In several places in Africa and elsewhere, living epic traditions can be observed in their natural contexts. (Johnson, William John, The Epic of Son-Jara-"A West African Tradition, Bloomington," Indiana University Press, 1986, p. 60) Great observation! But Johnson just misses the nail's head, as long as he does not put the original language of the epic at the very center of the "natural i ii contexts," and make the translation secondary. There is no doubt, however, that epic scholars are not only strongly aware of this need, but that they are moving towards correcting it. This is a wave that is getting stronger. It should be directed towards the grammar, morphology, tonology, phonology, semiology and other aspects of the original language, so we can observe the prosody oft he original poem under discussion, and not its translation. But there is no doubt that the energy in the discourse about the epic in African cultures is moving in that direction. No doubt when it reaches that point, Professor Pointer will be there, either with Kambili, or some other African epic to underscore the truth of this statement Emeritus Professor Daniel P. Kunene Department ofA frican Languages and Literature University of Wisconsin-Madison Preface Kambili, like Jesus, is a famous character who has an epic, mythic, story dedicated to him; yet, he may have never lived; there is no historical evidence, scholarly or otherwise; except an epic poem, based on oral accounts, dedicated to Kambili's being. It is amazing, quite amazing that a Kambili or Jesus, or Oedipus, Theseus, Romulus, Hercules, Perseus, Zeus, Jason, even a Robin Hood and Apollo who, as far as scientific research and scholarly knowledge is aware, never lived can become famous. Jesus, the Christian mythic hero, number three on the list that includes the above noted epic heroes, meets nineteen of the twenty-two indicators for heroic status, in Lord Raglan's tabulations oft ypical hero incidents: The pattern is as follows: 1. The hero's mother is a royal virgin; 2. His father is a king (or god) 3. Often a near relative of his mother, but 4. The circumstances of his conception are unusual, and 5. He is also reputed to be the son of a god. 6. At birth an attempt is made, usually by his father or his maternal grandfather, to kill him, but 7. He is spirited away, and 8. Reared by foster parents in a far country. iii