Sogolon Condé

Sogolon Wulen Condé (Gambian English: Sogolon Konte/Konteh) of Dò ni Kiri, commonly known as Sogolon Condé (in Malian French), was a 13th-century princess of Imperial Mali, and one of the prominent women portrayed in the Epic of Sundiata. Her trials and tribulations are well preserved in the epic. She was the second wife of Faama (King) Naré Maghann Konaté, and mother of Mansa Sundiata Keita, founder of the Mali Empire in the 13th century. According to Bamba Suso and Banna Kanute, Sogolong's father was Sankarang Madiba Konte, also known as Faa Ganda (probably Sangaran Madiba Konte, king of Sankaran, according to Conrad and Frank), a descendant of Khulubu Konte. In the epic, Sogolon is portrayed as the daughter of the "buffalo woman" (Dò Kamissa, from the land of Dô)–so-called because of her "ugliness" and hunchback, and so was Sogolong. The griots of Guinea refer to Sogolon as the younger sister of Do Kamissa. In many parts of the Senegambia region, and Mali, Sogolon is regarded as her daughter. As well as her physical deformities and "ugliness", Sogolon also gave birth to a disabled son (Sundiata), and was ridiculed for that. Following the death of her husband Naré Maghann Konaté, her co-wife, the politically ambitious Sassouma Bereté, Naré Maghann's first wife along with their first son Dankaran Toumani Keïta, plotted against Sogolon and her children, including assassination attempts on their lives. Fearing that the new King Dankaran and his mother Sassouma could inflict harm upon her and her children, Sogolon went into exile with her children to protect them from harm. Due to the power and influence of Dankaran and his mother, Sogolon and her children were refused asylum by many states within the Ghana Empire they traversed seeking protection. She was eventually granted asylum by the King of Mema (or Nema) Mansa Farin Tunkara. In Mema, Sogolon encouraged his disabled son Sundiata to fulfill his destiny, and return to Mali (Manden) and take the throne.

The King of Mema who admired Sundiata for his courage and tenacity despite his physical disability as a cripple (paralised from the waiste down) gave him important responsibilities in Mema. Following the conquest of the Mandinka people by the powerful and vailiant warrior Sosso King, Soumaoro Kanté, messengers were sent to search for Sogolon and her children, as Sundiata was destined to be a great leader according to the prophecy revealed to his late father prior to his marriage to Sogolon. The prohecy revealed to the late King Naré Maghann, was for him to marry a woman of Sogolon's physical's attributes as she would bear him a great heir despite her lack of physical beauty and hunchback. The messengers found Sogolon's children in Mema, and persuaded Sundiata to return home and liberate his people and their homeland. Sogolon had died prior to the messengers' arrival in Mema. Accompanied by a force of soldiers given to him by the King of Mema, Sundiata returned home with his siblings, and at the plains of Sibi, gathered some of the Mande warrior clans including the future conqueror of Kaabu, Mansa Tiramakhan Traore—where an alliance was formed to liberate their people and land from the powerful Soumaoro Kanté. That alliance resulted in the famous Battle of Kirina (1235), the battle which gave birth of the Mali Empire.