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Kunta Kinte, a young man from Gambia, was taken as a slave to the United States in the mid-18th century. He fought to maintain his cultural identity and freedom during enslavement. His story, popularized by Alex Haley’s novel Roots and subsequent film adaptation, opened eyes to the horrors of slavery and encouraged the preservation of African and African American culture. While some dispute the accuracy of Haley’s account, Kunta Kinte remains a symbol of the captured slave experience and the fight for freedom.
Kunta Kinte, also known as Toby, was a young man taken from his native Gambia in the mid-18th century, according to writer Alex Haley. He was brought to the United States, where he was a slave on a plantation. People also recognize him as the main character in Haley’s novel Roots which was made into an epic television series. He fought to maintain a sense of freedom and cultural identity during his enslavement. His story, which became wildly popular after its release, opened the public’s eyes to the horrors of slavery and encouraged the investigation and preservation of both African and African American culture.
Genealogy
According to Alex Haley, an American author of African American descent, Kunta Kinte was a member of the Mandinka tribe of the Gambia in West Africa. Haley claims he was captured and brought as a first generation slave to Annapolis, Maryland in 1767. He was the grandson of Kairaba Kunta Kinte, who served as a holy man for the Juffure Mandinka. His father was Omoro.
Once in the United States, he became known to his white masters as Toby. He fathered a daughter, Kizzy, who had a son affectionately named Chicken George. Then came Tom Murray, who fathered Cynthia Murray, who was the mother of Bertha Haley. Bertha had three sons, Julius, George and Alex (the author).
Cynthia Murray, Alex Haley’s grandmother, had preserved as best she could much of her family’s oral tradition and history. She passed on her ancestor’s story to her as she had heard it. From these stories, Haley created his famous work, Roots, which is a partially fictionalized account of slave life.
Although Haley claims that Kunta was a real person, other people have disputed this claim. Investigations into Murray’s accounts have been unable to prove beyond doubt that Kunta and a slave named To were the same person. He probably wasn’t Kizzy’s father, as he could have died long before she was conceived. This breaks the direct lineage that Haley is supposed to have.
Roots
The story of Kunta Kinte, as told by Haley in Roots, begins with his birth in 1750 in Juffure, Gambia. He is captured as a teenager by slave traders and makes the terrible journey on a slave ship to the United States. Along the way, many of his companions die of disease and inadequate care. Upon arrival in the United States, John Waller bought him as a worker for a plantation in Virginia, giving him the name Toby.
Waller repeatedly punishes Kunta for not responding to Toby, and the young slave repeatedly tries to escape. When he is captured for the fourth time, Waller has his foot chopped off so he can no longer run. Waller then sells it to his brother, William Waller. In his new home, the slave meets and marries Belle, with whom he has a daughter, Kizzy.
When Kizzy is sold, she has a son with her new owner. She simply calls him George, but as an adult he becomes known as Chicken George, because he has skills as a cockfighter. Eventually she buys his freedom, which paves the way for the rest of the family to live out of slavery.
Roots, the movie
Thanks to the incredible success of Alex Haley’s novel, Roots has been made into an epic film. It was released in 1977, starring Levar Burton. The 570-minute film solidified the short story’s place in both American literature and African-American culture.
Meaning
The importance of Kunta, according to Haley, is that he impressed upon the slaves around him the glory of being free, the need to return to African origins, and the value of continuing to oppose slavery. Though this opposition earned him torture, he retained a sense of his African identity, which he passed on to his daughter. The sense of coming from somewhere and the tenacity needed to hold on to the dream of freedom are recurring themes in Roots.
Despite the problems proving elements of Haley’s story, as a symbol of the captured slave experience, Tosi became established in the minds of the American people. He became the symbol of the condition of the slave and of the dignity of man. Through him, dialogues began about the negative nature of slavery and its profound effect on generations of African Americans. In that sense, he’s almost allegorical, serving as each captured slave waging battle against an oppressor much stronger than himself.
