Customer Reviews

Gassire's Lute: A West African Epic

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If you are like me and came across Gassire's Lute in an African folklore compilation and, being that it was relatively short, thought that the 70 pages claimed by this book meant that it was a more detailed and extensive version, YOU ARE WRONG.

The pages expand because Jablow wrote Gassire's Lute in poetry form, in stanzas and not paragraphs like you would find in a novel. Also, much of these pages are dedicated to vocabulary and not the actual epic.

Nevertheless, Gassire's Lute is possibly the oldest epic that still exists in West Africa. It's actually date is unsure but likely to have originated in the 2nd Millenium. It is the first section of a longer epic and deals with the origins of the first Mande civilization, the Soninke, who archaeologist have recognized began in Dhar Tichitt in the Western Sahel around 1600 BCE. The ruins consist of 100 kilometres of stone settlements.

Being that Gassire's Lute is about these Mande Soninke origins it is possibly representing a mixture of legend and history for this civilization that was contemporary with the Egyptian New Kingdom.

The book was in really good condition and it was way cheaper than what I would have payed at school.