Discuss what we learn about how divine powers and earthly beings interact in Sundiata (in an area with a
syncretic religion) and Popol Vuh (which is not a sacred text but presents the Mayan cosmology). Which values
embodied by these interactions are considered significant by their societies?
Also you can use all of this or part of this passage to quote “At the time when Sundiata was preparing to assert
his claim over the kingdom of his fathers, Soumaoro was the king of kings, the most powerful king in all the
lands of the setting sun. The fortified town of Sosso was the bulwark of fetishism against the word of Allah. For
a long time Soumaoro defied the whole world. Since his accession to the throne of Sosso he had defeated nine
kings whose heads served him as fetishes in his macabre chamber. . . . So his countless sofas were very
brave since they believed their king to be invincible. But Soumaoro was an evil demon and his reign had
produced nothing but bloodshed. Nothing was taboo for him. His greatest pleasure was publicly to flog
venerable old men (41).”