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Roots: The Saga of an American Family
(First edition cover)
Roots: The Saga of an American Family
is a
novel written by Alex Haley and
first
published
in
1976.
It
was
adapted
into
a
hugely
popular,
12-hour
television
miniseries,
also
called
Roots,
in
1977,
and
a
14-hour
sequel,
Roots:
The
Next
Generations, in 1979.
Plot introduction
Brought
up
on
the
stories
of
his
elderly
female
relatives
--
including
his
Grandmother Cynthia, who was
emancipated from slavery with her family in 1865
--
Alex Haley purported to have traced
his family history back to
“
the
African,
”
Kunta
Kinte, captured by slave traders in
1767. For generations, each of
Kunta
’
s
enslaved
descendants
passed
down
an
oral
history
of
Kunta
’
s
experiences
as
a
free
man
in
Gambia,
along
with
the
African
words
he
taught
them.
Haley
researched
African
village customs, slave-trading and the
history of Blacks in America -- as well as made
a
personal
visit
to
the
griot
(oral
historian)
of
his
ancestor
’
s
African
village
--
to
produce
this
colorful
rendering
of
his
family
’
s
history
from
the
mid-eighteenth
century
through the mid-twentieth century.
Plot summary
The action
begins with the birth of Kunta Kinte in 1750 to a
Mandinka tribesman
in the village of
Juffure, The Gambia. The author liberally uses
many African words
to describe the
everyday life of this Muslim community, which sees
young boys like
Kunta being groomed to
manhood with lessons of hunting, protecting their
families,
and subscribing to codes of
honor under the strict supervision of village
elders.
Several
years later,
Kunta hears vague talk about
“
toubob
”
(white people) who
have
been
spotted
in
the
jungles
nearby.
Tribesmen
are
disappearing
from
other
villages, never to be seen again. At
the age of 16, while Kunta is on sentry duty and
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