As the Norton introduction points out, in Mande culture, the jeli or bard was not merely an entertainer. Instead, the jeli's job was to tell stories of the rulers' ancestors in order to inspire them to meet their responsibilities to the people. The stories included examples of good and heroic deeds the rulers should imitate, and examples of mistakes they should avoid. So what are some important lessons that Sunjata offers to later rulers?

Two or three well-explained examples are preferable to a large number of examples that get little explanation. Remember that you don't need to remind your audience of the overall plot of the poem, but you will need to describe your example in some detail for your readers to understand which moment in the poem you are writing about and what it means. You can put the descriptions of the examples in your own words, but if the poem explicitly says what the example means, that would be a good passage to quote.