SOURCE: Bird, Charles S. Review of Sunjata: Three Mandinka Versions. Research in African Literatures 8, no. 3 (winter 1977): 353-69.

In the following review, Bird evaluates Gordon Innes's work on the Sunjata.

As specified in the title, this book [Sunjata: Three Mandinka Versions] consists of three versions of the Sunjata epic. The book's thirty-three-page introduction will be discussed in detail below. Each version is preceded by a short biography of the bard who authored the version in question. This is followed by the standard format presentation of such texts where an edited transcription is on the left-hand page and the corresponding translation on the right-hand page. Each version is followed by copious notes, many of which are quite useful. The first version is by the recently deceased master bard, Bamba Suso. This version runs 1,305 lines, which we would estimate to be about 2 to 2[frac12] hours of performance. The second version by...