Mande/Mali/Timbuktu - Geographic Setting, Sundiata Epic and Jeli Tradition

Calendar Circle + Cultural Care Promise + greet each other with vetted Bambara greeting 'i ni ce'

• Lead routine standing
• Affirm continuity with prior lessons

Show MG-3 map B West Africa. Locate Sahara, Sahel grassland, Niger River, Timbuktu, Djenne, Gao. Locate current Mali, Senegal, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Niger. On MG-2 Band 3: Mali Empire founded c. 1235 by Sundiata Keita; Mansa Musa's hajj c. 1324; Timbuktu's scholarly height c. 1300-1500. CRITICAL FRAMING: name Mande peoples (Mandinka, Bambara) as LIVING peoples today. Play MG-16 audio 1 (Sundiata epic excerpt in jeli performance). Read aloud Sonia Nimr or McKissack picture book.

• Notice: 'oral' does NOT mean 'unreliable.' The jeli tradition has 800 years of strict training. The Sundiata epic is one of the world's foundational primary sources for the history of Mali.

  model The Sundiata epic is transmitted by named jeli lineages across generations with strict training and high fidelity. Djeli Mamoudou Kouyate sang the version that Djibril Tamsir Niane recorded and translated in 1960. The epic encodes real historical events from the 1200s - the founding of the Mali Empire under Sundiata Keita.

  prompt How can a story sung by a jeli be a primary source?

• Who is a jeli? What is the Sundiata epic about?

Children listen to MG-16 audio 1 (Sundiata epic excerpt) as a primary source. Apply the ORAL-EPIC-LISTEN-NOTICE-WONDER-MAKER routine. They identify Djeli Mamoudou Kouyate as the named jeli source and Djibril Tamsir Niane as the named translator.

M-3-S-CUL-09-A Map

MG-3 map B 24x36-inch laminated map with Sahara desert and Sahel grassland belts highlighted, Niger River with Timbuktu, Djenne, Gao marked, major Trans-Saharan caravan routes shown, contemporary Mali / Senegal / Guinea / Burkina Faso borders with Mande language region shaded.

MG-3 Map

Mounted along one classroom wall as a coordinated set. The four-region framing is INTENTIONAL - it teaches that geography is the precondition for cultural development without becoming geographic determinism. Children locate the same Equator across all four maps to teach KS2 Geog 1.1.A. The contemporary borders on each map (alongside the historical sites) enforce the present-tense protocol - the regions are CURRENT places, not erased pasts.

M-3-S-CUL-09-B Audio Physical / non-image

MG-16 audio 1 - vetted 3-minute Sundiata epic excerpt sourced from Smithsonian Folkways recordings with permission. Performance by Djeli Mamoudou Kouyate (or contemporary jeli). Paired with printed Mandinka transcript and English translation. The named-jeli-source-and-named-translator credit is INTENTIONAL - refuses anonymous-folk-tradition framing.

MG-16 Interactive Physical / non-image

Used at the listening station throughout the unit. Children rotate through the listening table during independent practice. CRITICAL teacher protocol: every audio recording must be sourced WITH PERMISSION from a vetted institutional source (Smithsonian Folkways, PVS, CTTC, or equivalent); never use uncredited YouTube clips. The transcript pairs allow children to follow along visually while listening to ground unfamiliar phonologies.

• Listen to MG-16 audio 1 a second time. In pairs, fill in a mini Source Detective Card for the Sundiata recording.

  scaffold Sentence frames in each box
• On a class chart, list 3 things you notice about how the jeli sings. Discuss: how does this technique help preserve memory across centuries?

  scaffold Teacher facilitates discussion; refusing 'primitive' framings

M-3-S-CUL-09-C Photograph

MG-11 photo 5 - high-resolution contemporary photograph of a Mande jeli (Toumani Diabate, Ballake Sissoko, or Sona Jobarteh - well-known living kora performers) at the kora. 4-line caption with country, year, photo credit. Sourced with permission from cultural-organization or musician's representative.

MG-11 Photograph

Mounted on classroom wall as a grouped 4x4 grid. Used in lessons 7-14 as the LIVING-CULTURE PHOTO routine source set. The 4-per-culture standard is INTENTIONAL - equal weighting. Critical teacher protocol: source these photos with permission from the cultural organizations represented (CTTC for Andean; Polynesian Voyaging Society for Polynesian; Mande cultural organizations; Chinese cultural organizations). The 'photographer credit' and 'year' lines enforce that these are real contemporary images by named photographers in named years - not generic stock photography.

• Name TWO Mande peoples who live in West Africa today.
• Who is Sundiata Keita?

• Restate: 'Oral tradition carries real history with high fidelity'
• Preview lesson 10's Mansa Musa and Timbuktu deep-dive

• Discuss today's lesson with a caregiver and record 2 sentences.