About the Author

David C. Conrad holds a Ph.D. from the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London and is professor emeritus of history at the State University of New York-Oswego. President of the Mande Studies Association since 1986, Conrad has been a fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, the Fulbright Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Humanities. Some of his books include A State of Intrigue: The Epic of Bamana Segou, Epic Ancestors of the Sunjata Era, and Sunjata: A West African Epic of the Mande Peoples. In 2008, he appeared in an episode of the Travels to the Edge with Art Wolfe and in the Discovery Channel series Into the Unknown with Josh Bernstein.