The goal of this activity is for students to develop a draft of an idea web of Sundiata’s story from a performance showcasing both the musical and oral traditions. The performance is a powerful retelling that will not only showcase aspects of the story of Sundiata but also introduce students to the Djeli tradition.

Display for students the section on Sunjata Keita of Mali, from the Gold Road site using this link or by selecting Sunjata Keita after filtering by Mali and People. If you have not already done so in Activity 2, review the history of Sunjata adding additional context and detail to the story to bring it further to life for students. 
Tell students that in class today they will be watching a performance on the life of Sundiata and creating an Idea web. Show students the provided visual anchor of an idea web or reference one of your choosing.

Next, have students watch and listen to the accompanying video, The Sunjata Story-Glimpse of the Mande Epic, a twenty minute recording by Cherif Keita, professor at Carleton College and one of the descendants of Sundiata Keita just as the famous Malian singer Salif Keita is. As students are watching & listening, ask them to focus their listening to begin drawing an idea web for Sunjata on paper. Ask students to note the ideas expressed, the values, the people, the actions, the outcome. 

  • This video can also be found through it’s direct Youtube link- https://youtu.be/yOS78ul1_rA
  • It is recommended that this activity be done whole class in order to support students with the language and assure classroom expectations are met when viewing content from a culture or tradition that may be unfamiliar. However, if preferred, this activity could be completed by students independently or in small groups.
  • The video performance does not allow close captions to be turned on and. For accessibility for students who may not be able to hear or may benefit from additional scaffolding use this text instead or or alongside the video https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VHflWXzL42FxJ7xjMtWyIAnRjFwcoM9X/view?usp=share_link  

As time allows, ask students to share highlights from their Idea Webs of Sunjata’s story.

A Djeli Performance Idea Web