Connecting through Sunjata’s Story

This article presents a conversation between Afua Cooper and Marcia Ostashewski. Cooper is a multidisciplinary artist and scholar, and a celebrated Jamaican-born Canadian historian who specializes in Caribbean studies, women’s studies, history, and Black studies. Cooper became involved in the Sunjata Project in 2019 after witnessing Lassana Diabaté share music and stories about Mande culture and history at a public library in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. This conversation represented in the curated transcript below was conducted via video call in 2022, in preparation for the community-engaged research-creation project TransAtlantic Pilgrimage: African History, Poetry, and Music, a collaboration involving Cooper, Diabaté and Ostashewski. Cooper discusses how elements of the Sunjata narrative – such as the themes of exile and the overcoming of obstacles and challenges – relate to her own experiences as a dub poet and a woman of African ancestry living in Nova Scotia. Cooper also discusses the power that public performances of the Sunjata Fasa and other aspects of Mande music and culture have in promoting cross-cultural dialogue and exchange.