David Conrad's Sunjata: A New Prose Version is a rarity; a scholarly English translation of a performance of West Africa's most famous oral epic that eschews a line-by-line text. Linear translations have dominated the market since the 1970s: Gordon Innes's Sunjata: Three Mandinka Versions (1973); John Johnson's Son-Jara (1986); and, Conrad's own Sunjata: A West African Epic of the Mande Peoples (2004). The last unquestionably successful prose translation was Djibril Tamsir Niane's Sundiata: An Epic of Old Mali (1965), first published in French in 1960. Niane's version is a perennial favourite but renders the narrative of its griot or jeli, Mamoudou Kouyate, in the style of a novel. By contrast, Conrad's new version of Sunjata, which is a reworking of his 2004 translation of a performance by Guinean jeli Djanka Tassey Condé, retains a large majority of the griot's translated utterance.

A brief comparison illustrates his approach. Here is his linear rendition of Sunjata's father's search for a special wife to give birth to the hero:

Here is the same section in the volume under review:

Conrad's light editorial touch loses a little of the performative aspects of the linear version, including the interjections of Condé’s naamu-sayer (‘yes’-sayer), but gains in readability and, consequently, accessibility. It also shaves 72 pages off the 2004 version, allowing (one assumes) the list price of $14 for the paperback, four dollars less than the linear 2004 version.

To what extent is Conrad's new version of Sunjata a replacement for Niane's famous, but ageing, rendition, as an accessible introductory text? Conrad's book may not match the majestic tone of Niane's. It also lacks the narrative neatness and focused plotting Sundiata delivers. Condé’s story, even after vigorous editing-out of numerous passages of the multi-day performance, is expansive and, at times, meanders. But Conrad's New Prose Version of Sunjata conveys more closely the reality of oral performance, delivered in a format familiar to modern readers. It is replete with proverbs illuminating Manding culture: ‘The chick destined to be a rooster will eventually crow, no matter what obstacles it has to overcome before it can do so’ (53). It shows how that culture uses oral epic to explain the origins of customs, such as marriage traditions said to derive from Sogolon's wedding to Sunjata's father (42–6). Condé’s narrative is rich, varied, and detailed. It has the backstory to Sumaworo, Sunjata's major rival for power, including a poignant episode in which Sumaworo's sister enslaves herself to genies so that her brother can gain in strength (70–3). It also has bleakly comic passages. In ‘Mistaken Murder and the Question of Exile’, seven henchmen of Dankaran Tuman (Sunjata's half-brother and rival) eventually muster the courage to club Sunjata to death while he sleeps, only to find that they have killed the wrong person (54–8). The narrator conveys the relative courage of the protagonists in this laconic phrase: seeing Sunjata approach, ‘Dankaran Tuman peed in his pants’ (57). There is wisdom for the modern age: ‘Do not be too concerned with blackness or whiteness’, Condé counsels, ‘be more concerned with humanity. We are all equal. We all have life. … So when you come to visit us, you have come to your father's house’ (100). Most episodes familiar to readers from other versions of this tradition are included here, from the buffalo-woman, Do Kamissa, to Jolofin mansa and his horses. One memorable episode is absent: Sumaworo's seduction by Sunjata's sister, revealing his vulnerability to the spur of a white cock.

The narrative is accompanied by a wide-ranging and authoritative introduction (lacking only consideration of historical claims made for this oral tradition), helpful notes, a glossary, list of major characters, suggestions for further reading, and two maps. These sections are revised versions of those found in the 2004 edition. Together they create the best English-language introductory volume on Sunjata available today.