The Old Woman, the Buffalo and the Lion of Manding

More about the show

The Birth of Sundiata Keita, visionary leader of the great Malian empire, is told across West Africa as a history of kingship and battle.  Jan Blake, one of the world’s leading and best-loved storytellers, together with two exceptional West African born musicians, Kouame Sereba and Raymond Sereba, share a rarely told perspective on the story of the extraordinary circumstances of this legendary leader’s birth.

Filled with songs of the Gban people, The Old Woman, the Buffalo and the Lion of Manding, has energised audiences across the UK and Europe from Hay on Wye Literature Festival to Netherland’s Zwolle Unlimited Festival to the RSC in Stratford-upon-Avon.

Guitars, Nordic flutes, djembe drums and kalimbas along with the extraordinary dodo mouth bow, cradle the story in an evocative soundscape.  This story reaches across the centuries, from its origins in 13th Century Africa to the recent conflicts of our own time when its telling was forbidden.

Originally commissioned by Festival at the Edge Storytelling Festival and developed for national touring by Adverse Camber in association with The Akua Storytelling Project, Mac Birmingham and The Albany.