Luz Zapata  

WHUM  

Professor Lui  

Week 16 

5/14/19 

                                                          Reading Journal  

This week reading journal was very interesting. While I was reading the book “Sundiata an epic of old Mali.” I realize that songs are very important because they use it for different reasons. They use song to celebrate, to get inspiration and many other things. To begin with, on page 21, it says, “But the great bar of iron was twisted and had taken the form of a bow!” thus shows that Sundiata accomplish something and that is why they started to sing because they wanted to celebrate. Additionally, they also use songs to say that they are thankful. On page 21, it says, “…She sang these words of thanks to God who had given her son the use of his legs.” This shows that they also use songs to try to communicate with the gods. Additionally, they use songs to help themselves feel better. On page 54, it says “…There had been great fear in Djata’s ranks and that is why the griots sing…” They had won the battle that day but Sundiata army was afraid about what could happen in the future and that is why they started to sing, to make themselves feel better. Finally, songs are very important because they can represent how we feel and even express words that we can’t say. In this book we see that songs play an important role because they use it for many different things, to celebrate, to control, to make themselves feel better, and to communicate.