Ibn Khaldun refers to him by the term mawlā (Arabic: مولى), which can be translated as "client", and may imply that he was formerly enslaved but was freed by the Keitas.
[5] During the late 13th century, the leadership of the Mali Empire involved ongoing palace intrigues, with a power struggle between the gbara or Grand Council and the donson ton or hunter guilds.
[8] The historian Nehemia Levtzion speculated that Sakura may have been involved in a previous coup, in which Mansa Khalifa had been overthrown and replaced by Sunjata's grandson or nephew Abu Bakr.
[16] Sakura may have sought to strengthen ties with the rest of the Muslim world and display Mali's power during his hajj.
Ibn Khaldun regarded Sakura as a mighty ruler and describes his reign in greater detail than his predecessors.
[11] The 20th-century historian Djibril Tamsir Niane regarded Sakura as having saved the Mali Empire from political crisis.
[22] The memory of Sakura may have been partially incorporated into the hero Fakoli of oral tradition, a great general who supported Sunjata.