Sunjata 5/30/14

     Sunjata is the hero of late thirteenth century epic, a character so inspiring that he became an integral part of the Mande culture in sub-Saharan West Africa. Within that culture, nothing was more important than family, including related traditions like marriage. As in American culture, however, sometimes random actions can result in a lasting tradition, as in the case of the bride-carrying ceremony, as described in Sunjata’s epic.

    The bride-carrying ceremony that is now so ingrained in Mande culture didn’t actually start as a purposeful ceremony. The wife who’s story established the tradition merely had a twisted foot, and she was carried because she couldn’t walk in her condition. From that one, simple action stemmed generations of tradition. It even yielded a song, appropriately entitled the “bride-carrying song” (Subjata 1536) to accompany the tradition. An unfortunate verse was added when the bride’s headscarf fell off and everyone saw that she was bald. From that time forward the bride was known as “heron-head” (1537).

    Of course, the Mande didn’t have the market cornered on wedding traditions with bizarre origins. Every day in modern America women walk down the aisle wearing a veil, unaware that the purpose of the veil is to disguise herself from evil spirits who might be jealous of her happiness. Those pesky evil spirits were also believed to be likely to enter into the bride through her feet, which is where we get the tradition of carrying the bride over the threshold of her new home (Stewart). Heaven forbid an evil spirit should stowaway on the sole of a bride’s foot to gain entrance to her house.

    It’s interesting to take an anthropological look at the behavior of human beings, especially with an emphasis on traditions. It turns out that people all over the world do things everyday because they are adhering to tradition, never imagining that the original reason for the tradition might be ridiculously outdated. That’s certainly the case in the Mande traditions of bride-carrying, but that isn’t any sillier than the myriad traditions surrounding weddings in modern America.
   


                                                                    Works Cited

---. "Sunjata." The Norton Anthology of World Literature. Third ed. Vol. 1. New York: W. W. Norton, 2013. 1514-1576. Print.

Stewart, Martha. "11 Wedding Superstitions and Traditions Explained." CNN. Cable News Network, 06 Sept. 2013. Web.