Soundiata Keïta

What Dominique Pagani says

Dominique Pagani mentions Sundiata Keita mainly as the hero of the Manding epic, which in his view plays the role of the Iliad in West Africa1. He regularly calls him the West African "Achilles"23 and points out that griots still sing of his deeds as a conqueror4. One motif comes back across several sessions: the role of the blacksmith. Sundiata is plunged into the forge, linked with the underworld5, and it is the blacksmith who gives him the weapon of his victory. On this point he compares him to the Germanic epic, where the forged weapon also makes the hero invulnerable6. These mentions come up in discussions of mythology, truth and memory. In 2024, in a session on the Sahel and imperialism, he presents him in more historical terms, as the founder of one of the greatest African empires. There he mentions a caravan of gold that reportedly brought prices down in Cairo7.

1. 1Mythologie et Vérité8 Aug 2015 · 6:14
2. 2Griaule (Marcel)18 Oct 2017 · 8:53
3. 3#5 Bien-et Mé-faits de l'amnésie...19 Nov 2020 · 29:37
4. 4Freud1 Aug 2017 · 11:33
5. 5Mythologie et Vérité8 Aug 2015 · 45:12
6. 6Dominique Pagani ▷II Michel Foucault2 May 2019 · 50:34
7. 7AFRIQUE SAHÉLIENNE ET IMPÉRIALISME : Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger - avec Dominique PAGANI23 Mar 2024 · 1:01:37

Summary produced automatically from 9 of the passages below, to be reviewed; the numbers link to the moment in the session.