Person
Balla Fasséké
Balla Fasséké is, in the oral tradition of the Epic of Sundiata, the jeli (griot) of Sundiata Keita and the ancestor of the Kouyate line of Malinke griots. Griots were the aristocratic oral historians who attended kings, recording and recalling the legacies of kings and kingdoms. In the epic, the dying king Naré Maghann Konaté gives Balla Fasséké, the son of his own jeli, to the young Sundiata as a gift, honouring a prophecy that Sundiata would be Mali's greatest king. When Sassouma Berete takes control of the throne for her son Dankaran Touman, she sends Balla Fasséké and Sundiata's half-sister Nana to the sorcerer king Soumaoro Kante of the Sosso.
See also
Cite this entry
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Balla Fasséké. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/balla-fasseke
- MLA
- “Balla Fasséké.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/balla-fasseke. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Balla Fasséké.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/balla-fasseke.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Balla Fasséké’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/balla-fasseke (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻