Naré Maghann Konaté

Naré Maghann Konaté, remembered in the epic by the by-name Maghan Kon Fatta, 'Maghan the Handsome', is the king of the Manden whose union with Sogolon produces Sunjata Keita. A divining hunter comes to his court and foretells that if he marries an ill-favoured woman she will bear him a son destined to rule a vast empire; when two hunters from Dò arrive bearing the hunchbacked Sogolon, the king recognises the prophecy and takes her as a wife alongside his first queen, Sassouma Bereté. His death, and the passing of the throne to Sassouma's son rather than to the still-crippled Sunjata, precipitates the exile from which the hero will return to claim his inheritance.

Children

• Sunjata Keita

Domains

• kingship

Powers

• marries in obedience to a hunter's prophecy

Epithets

• Maghan Kon Fatta

Relations

• spouse: Sogolon Condé

Sources

• Niane, D. T. (1965). Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali. London: Longman, pp. 5-13.
• Belcher, Stephen (1999). Epic Traditions of Africa. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, pp. 89-113.