Sundiata Keita’s wealth is not as great as his descendant, but it is still large enough to compete with Russia’s quest for Great Writers.

The two things Sundiata Keita is best at are Gold and Great Works of Writing. Mali’s Songs of the Jeli hurts his Production, but gives back in Gold generation. He receives even more Gold from the Suguba’s adjacency bonuses and Mandekalu Cavalry’s Gold from kills. Sundiata Keita’s epic ability to purchase Great People cheaper is best focused on purchasing Great Writers who can create even more powerful Great Works of Writing. Culture Victory is the best purchase Sundiata Keita can make.

The Malian Empire arose from the ashes of Ghana (Wagadou). Mali existed as a small state on the edges of the Sahel, that arid region at the southern fringe of the Sahara. But as Wagadou collapsed, these smaller powers saw their chance. And, for Mali, around 1230, it was Sundiata Keita, the Lion of Mali, on whose shoulders this burden fell.

According to the Epic of Sundiata, the Lion’s origins were not auspicious. His mother, Sogolon, was a commoner unflatteringly called “the buffalo woman.” But this was part of the point; according to prophecy, if the Mande king Nare Maghann Konate married such a person, she would bear a great king.

Sundiata was, in this way, born to Konate and Sogolon. He was not well-liked – he acquired his looks from his mother, and, further, his physical condition was such that he was unable to walk throughout much of his childhood. Sundiata struggled as a young man against his condition as well as against the resentment of his half-brother, born of a fully noble line. He struggled to walk, breaking the iron rods that blacksmiths had forged for him, and only through the steady command of his mother (or, in some tellings, the strength of a baobab tree) he forced himself to move.

But family struggles proved worse – upon the death of his father, Sundiata and Sogolon were exiled and wandered the Sahel seeking shelter. All tribes cast them out, except for one, the Mema kingdom. With shelter there, Sundiata learned to hunt and fight, and proved his worth.

In his absence, things were developing in the region. Soumaoro Kante, a sorcerer-king, had arisen and began conquering the remnants of Wagadou. In fear, the Malian people sought for their exiled, prophesied king, and found him – it should be noted that the young king was only 18 at the time! Sundiata returned to Mali, united the scattered kingdoms, and defeated the sorcerer.

This story, recorded in the “Epic of Sundiata”, has its biases. Later writings and tellings come mostly from Muslim sources and would be eager to cast any ruler following indigenous religions as a cruel and wicked sorcerer. Sundiata, in these stories, is a righteous Muslim king who founds a Muslim dynasty. But most Malians at Sundiata’s time were not Muslim, and his own religion was likely not Islam, though in just a generation or two, most of Mali’s elites were. Indeed, the explorer Ibn Battuta complains about the unorthodox practices at the Malian court nearly a hundred years later, though he notes that the nobles are all of the faith.

Mali under Mansa [king] Sundiata was not of the extent and richness it would become under Musa, his great-nephew. Nonetheless, Sundiata created a federated monarchy in West Africa, where various vassal kingdoms would send representatives to speak for their people. It was the beginnings of the successors to Wagadou, successors that would include Mali itself, Songhai, and others.

Mansa Sundiata died young, likely during a failed river crossing. His tomb is hidden, as are all tombs of the Malian kings.