Naré Maghann Konaté was a 12th-century faama

Faama

Faama is a Mandinka word meaning "king". It was commonly used within the area of pre-imperial Mali. The title spread into areas conquered by Mali and was later used by the Bamana Empire and the Wassoulou Empire of Samori Toure and non-Mandinka groups in the Kenedougou Empire.-See also:*Mali...

 (king) of the Mandinka people

Mandinka people

The Mandinka, Malinke are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa with an estimated population of eleven million ....

, in what is today Mali

Mali

Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...

. He was the father of Sundiata Keita

Sundiata Keita

Sundiata Keita, Sundjata Keyita, Mari Djata I or just Sundiata was the founder of the Mali Empire and celebrated as a hero of the Malinke people of West Africa in the semi-historical Epic of Sundiata....

, founder of the Mali Empire

Mali Empire

The Mali Empire or Mandingo Empire or Manden Kurufa was a West African empire of the Mandinka from c. 1230 to c. 1600. The empire was founded by Sundiata Keita and became renowned for the wealth of its rulers, especially Mansa Musa I...

, and a character in the oral tradition

Oral tradition

Oral tradition and oral lore is cultural material and traditions transmitted orally from one generation to another. The messages or testimony are verbally transmitted in speech or song and may take the form, for example, of folktales, sayings, ballads, songs, or chants...

 of the Epic of Sundiata

Epic of Sundiata

The Sundiata Keita or Epic of Sundiata is an epic poem of the Malinke people and tells the story of the hero Sundiata Keita, the founder of the Mali Empire...

.

The Epic of Sundiata

In the Epic of Sundiata, Naré Maghann Konaté (also called Maghan Kon Fatta or Maghan the Handsome) was a Mandinka king who one day received a divine hunter at his court. The hunter predicted that if Konaté married an ugly woman, she would give him a son who would one day be a mighty king. Naré Maghann Konaté was already married to Sassouma Berté and had a son by her, Dankaran Toumani Keïta. However, when two Traoré hunters from the Do kingdom presented him an ugly, hunchbacked woman named Sogolon; he remembered the prophecy and married her. She soon gave birth to a son, Sundiata, who was unable to walk throughout most of his childhood.

After Naré Maghann Konaté's death (c. 1218), his first son, Dankaran Toumani Keita, assumed the throne despite Konaté's wishes that the prophecy be respected. Sundiata nonetheless overcame both his handicap and his brother's scorn to eventually defeat the Sosso

Sosso

The Sosso Empire was a twelfth-century Kaniaga kingdom of West Africa.-Medieval Sosso:The modern Sosso people trace their history to a 12th- and 13th-century Kaniaga kingdom known as the "Sosso." With the fall of the Ghana Empire, the Sosso expanded into a number of its former holdings, including...

 invader Soumaoro Kanté

Soumaoro Kanté

Soumaoro Kanté was a thirteenth century king of the Sosso people. Seizing Koumbi Saleh, the capital of the recently-defunct Ghana Empire, Soumaoro Kanté proceeded to conquer several neighboring states, including the Mandinka people in what is now Mali...

, thus ensuring the Mandinka's dominance over the region in the form of the Mali Empire.

See also

• Mali Empire
  Mali Empire
  The Mali Empire or Mandingo Empire or Manden Kurufa was a West African empire of the Mandinka from c. 1230 to c. 1600. The empire was founded by Sundiata Keita and became renowned for the wealth of its rulers, especially Mansa Musa I...
  
  
• Keita Dynasty
  Keita Dynasty
  The Keita Dynasty ruled pre-Imperial and Imperial Mali from the 12th century into the early 17th century. It was a Muslim Dynasty, and its rulers claimed descent from Bilal. Bilal was a freed slave who accepted Islam and became one of the Sahabas of the Prophet Muhammad. Bilal bears the...