Epic
Kelefa Saane: His Career Recounted by Two Mandinka Bards
Anonymous · 1978
Synopsis
Two Mandinka griots, Bamba Suso and Shirif Jebate, sing the career of Kelefa Saane, a warrior prince of Kaabu born at Badora, in today's Guinea-Bissau. The hero leaves for Niumi, on the north bank of the Gambia river, to lend a hand to King Demba Sonko in his war against Jokadu, and the war turns in the king's favour when he joins him.
Context
Published in London in 1978 by the School of Oriental and African Studies, the volume gives, in Mandinka and English, the versions of Bamba Suso and Shirif Jebate, 780 and 533 lines long, edited and translated by Gordon Innes, with a study of the music by Lucy Durán. Donald R. Wright sees it in 1987 as doubtless the most popular oral tradition of Senegambia, sung from south-western Guinea-Bissau to Bundu; the kora tune Kelefaba, composed in the hero's honour, is held to be one of the oldest for the instrument.
Who it is for
For hearing, in a bilingual version, one of the great epics of the Mandinka griots, in the voices of two griots who sang it.
Prizes and reception
Gordon Innes sees in the hero the embodiment of everyday ideals: selflessness, loyalty and courage.
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