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Scrofulous Sogolon 119 43. Cissé & Kamissoko 2000: 69. 44. Jansen & Duintjer & Tamboura 1995: 79. 45. Conrad & Condé 2004: 42. 46. Suso, Kanute & Innes 1999: 4. In Banna Kanute’s version, Sukulung’s name is mentioned but she is not described (Suso, Kanute & Innes 1999: 35). 47. If it were the only criterion we had, we could not present it as conclusive, as Grunne does (Grunne 2014: 46). 48. Depending on where they originated within the immense Mali Empire. 49. Conrad & Condé 2004: 42 and 44. 50. Conrad & Condé 2004: 55. 51. These Mande huntsmen kill the buffalo after many adventures. To thank them, they are invited to choose among the many daughters of the king of Dô. As the buffalo instructed, they choose the ugliest one, Sogolon, whom they take back to the king of Mande so he can marry her. Details vary in different versions of the epic. The names of the protagonists also change, as does the importance given to certain wondrous events. 52. Here we see a reference to the rifle bullet that is an element added to suit the period, but does not change the epic’s deep significance and moral impact. It could be compared to similar manipulations of a Greek or Shakespearean tragedy with the characters placed in contemporary situations. 53. Cissé & Kamissoko 2000: 63. 54. Niane 1960: 24. 55. Cissé & Kamissoko 2000: 63; see too Conrad & Condé 2004: 45; Devisse & Sidibé 1993: 147. 56. Weaving as a metaphor for speech is described in length in the work of Griaule and Dieterlen, especially among the Dogon (Calame-Griaule 2006: 10–12; Griaule 1948: 35–37; Griaule & Dieterlen 1965: 232). 57. Cissé & Kamissoko 2000: 63. 58. D’Alleva 1990: 185, entry 57. 59. The CT scan executed in 2014 revealed it to be female, therefore it could indeed represent a she-buffalo. 60. Grunne 2014: 46; in Cissé & Kamissoko (2000: 67), it is specifically stated that Dô Kamissa, turned into a buffalo, had “‘eaten’ the twelve great hunters of the Sankaran, as well as the twelve great witches who ruled over the Sankaran.” Sankaran seems to be the capital of the land of Dô (Cissé & Kamissoko 2000: 57, note 35). A research team, “Historical and Archaeological Mission in the Do,” is currently working in what is thought to be the region of Dô. They are Kevin MacDonald (UCL), Nikolas Gestrich (UCL), Seydou Camara (ISH), and Daouda Keita (Université de Bamako) (Daouda Keita pers. comm.; see also http://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/ calendar/articles/2013-14/20131204). 61. As mentioned in different versions of the epic (Cissé & Kamissoko 2000: 63; Niane 1960: 24). 62. Niane 1960: 36. 63. Niane 1960: 41; Suso, Kanute & Innes 1999: 5. 64. Johnson & Sisòkò 2003: 161. 65. Suso & Kanute & Innes 1999: 59. 66. Cissé & Kamissoko 2000: 99. 67. Jansen & Duintjer & Tamboura 1995: 90. 68. The possibility that these figures showed Sunjata as a disabled man was first suggested by Alain Person (personal communication, 2006). 69. Niane 1960: 10–11; “by his father, Sunjata is the son of the Lion, by his mother, the son of the Buffalo” (Niane 1960: 11, note 3). 70. Fetish, a word detested by some writers, here takes its full significance from its etymology: the Portuguese word for an artifact, made (fetiçao) by human hands and yet charged with a fundamentally non-human power that gives it its efficacy (Latour 2009, 53; Bouttiaux 2011: 155–156). 71. MQB archives, Eid 1991. 72. Wanono 2003: 104–109. 73. Conrad 2008: 407. 74. Cissé & Kamissoko 2000: 95. 75. Camara 1996: 774. 76. Niani is thought by some writers to be the capital of the Mali Empire. See also Collet 2013. 77. Niane 1960: 39. 78. Cissé & Kamissoko 2000: 99. 79. Suso & Kanute & Innes 1999: 5. 80. Cissé & Kamissoko 2000: 100–103; Creissels & Jatta 1980: 115; Johnson & Sisòkò 2003: 169–173; Niane 1960: 44–46; Suso, Kanute & Innes 1999: 4–5, 61–62. 81. Cissé & Kamissoko 2000: 98–99, 104–107; Creissels & Jatta 1980: 114; Johnson & Sisòkò 2003: 167–169, 175–179; Niane 1960: 47–48; Suso, Kanute & Innes 1999: 63–65. 82. MQB archives, Eid 1991, see also note 19. 83. Guimont 1978: 14; Leurquin 1999: 71. 84. McIntosh & McIntosh 1979: 52–53; 1988: 156. 85. Bedaux et al. 1994: 47; Kiethega, Sidibé & Bedaux 1993: 434. 86. Barth 1977: 57–63; Kiethega, Sidibé & Bedaux 1993: 437; Masson-Detourbet 1953: 100–102. 87. Mauny 1949: 72; Szumowski 1955: 65–69; Vieillard 1940: 347–349. 88. Grunne 1987: 97–114; Leurquin 1999: 69–70. 89. Therefore, at the best estimate, five to six centuries after the works were produced (Grunne 1987: 97–109, 133–182; 1988; 1995; 2014: 36–43). 90. No longer acceptable since warnings by McIntosh (1989: 75, 80– 81) and research by J. Clifford on the errors induced by collecting cultures through their art (1988: 215–251). Note, however, that in 1983, Susan McIntosh still presented this edulcorated version of an immutable Africa (“And the past becomes the mirror of the present,” p. 47). 91. See the contributions in works by Chrétien 2008, Gassama 2008, and Konaré 2008. 92. Suso & Kanute & Innes 1999: 30. 93. Bamana, Minianka, Dogon, Bozo, etc., now strongly Islamized. 94. Bochet 1993: 60–61; Bouttiaux 2009: 170–177. 95. Ouedraogo 2013. 96. McIntosh & McIntosh 1979: 52–53; McIntosy 1984: 22. 97. MNAAO, whose collections, along with those of the Musée de l’Homme, are now in the MQB. 98. Chazal 1991: 3. 99. Operation Serval began in January 2013 and ended on 13 July 2014. It has been replaced by the anti-terrorist Operation Barkhane. http://www.lemonde.fr/lesdecodeurs/ article/2014/07/19/la-france-plus-presente-que-jamai s-en-afrique_4459144_4355770.html. We do not mention these two events, the Dakar speech with its disparaging content, and military aid (sometimes interpreted as paternalistic or neocolonial),


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