ABSTRACT
Foodways are the bridge between human culture and the natural environment. This chapter looks at the intersection of foodways studies and ecocriticism through one of the central epics of West Africa. In Sunjata—the oral epic of the Mande peoples—it is a tree that provides a glimpse into the relationship between humans and the natural environment, between food and culture, in a West Africa before the advent of the Atlantic slave trade and the European domination of the region. Camara Laye's 1978 novel, Kouma Lafôlô Kouma, translated by James Kirkup into English as The Guardian of the Word, takes the Sunjata oral narrative as told by Babu Condé and expands upon it, giving characters motivations and interior dialogues not present in the original. In Keita! L'héritage du griot, a filmed version of the Sunjata epic by the Burkinabè filmmaker Dani Kouyaté, the act of sharing a meal occupies an important place in the narrative.
