Holding our attention with terrific story-telling skills, the award-winning author Alex Haley helps us navigate through time as we are introduced to Kunta Kinte who transended the gap between Africa and America.

Stolen from Africa and brought to America only to be sold into slavery, Alex’s great-great-great-grandfather experiences a unique transformation that only a few can claim the right to, a transformation from a born and raised Africian into an grown American father …….

While the novel illustrated the life of slavery, both in Africa and in America, the main theme of the book was the value of passing on family traditions that Kunte Kinte held dear to him. 

It was the importance of passing on the oral history of his family that enabled Haley to write a riveting novel, but not before he took the time to trace his lineage as best as he could with the assistance of historical documents and scholars so he could find a way to preserve the details as much as possible.

I certainly look forward to visiting his homeland (the Gambia region of western Africa) some day and experiencing the myraid cultures found throughout Africa.  You can read a passage from Page 123 which perfectly illustrates what I mean about getting a feel for the Africa that Kunta knew.

It was actually Chicken George, not Kunta Kinte who livened things up for me.  Not only because of his colorful nature and zest for  life spurred on by his career as a gamecocker (one who trains chicken to fight), it was easier for me to identify the time frame he was born and raised in. 

I have to admit the wild times Chicken George had at the cockfights reminded me of the grand ole’ times during my days in Savannah, Georgia.  Not quite as wild as these cockfights but the air of being around the Southerners from all walks of life thriving in the sheer pleasure of being at an event together.

But none of this would have happened if Kunta Kinte did not instill the tradition of passing on the oral history of his lineage from his African family to his American family.  A tradition that was passed on through the generations before coming to rest in Haley’s hand when he penned one of the great American classic, Roots: The Saga of an American Family. 

My only disappointment was how quickly the story ended.  That is saying something when you realize the book is over 800 pages thick.  The way certain threads ended such as what happened to Kunta Kinte’s parents and brothers, or even of Kunta Kinta and his wife does truly represent the common mysteries prevalent in tracing our ancestors as to what happened to them.  How did it end for them? 

Recommended.

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