SIX OF WANDS

Under the Linké tree at Kourougan Fouga, Soundjata sealed the friendship between peoples and therein birthed the Mali Empire.

Soundjata’s mother had fortitude aplenty. One day Sogolon told her son: Little one come away, let us leave for now and you shall come back later when you will be grown. She never gave up on her child hippo, her oddball son. While seven winters went by in oblivion in the mind of the people, time laboured of equal length over the prince. As ailments gave wisdom to his spirit, his body grew in vim and in vigor. By eighteen he had the might of a lion and the will of a buffalo. Exile would end. Another sun would rise. And Sogolon knew that she had done her part. She took the baobab leaves to her nose and inhaled all their perfume: Do not illusion yourself my son for your fate is not here, your fate is in Manding. Soundjata remained silent. And when the moment was ripe, for everything has its time, Soundjata paid tribute to all who had been his masters, convened his poet and close companions, and under no illusions endeavoured to return home. Traditionalists will tell you that in the very begining the Manding was a province of the Bambara Kings. Its language clear as the land, often opposed to the forest, dark country. That kapok trees and solitary baobabs that you see there today are traces of long gone cities, Madinka legacy. Under the Linké tree at Kourougan Fouga, Soundjata sealed the friendship between peoples and therein birthed the Mali Empire. and it is said that if your fate awaits in a place, men and women can do nothing.Nevertheless it might be asked, how did Soundjata know how to listen, how did Soundjata know how to hear?