Kunta Kinte
Character in Alex Haley's ''Roots''
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Key Takeaways
- Kunta Kinte ( KOON -tah KIN -tay ) is the main character from the 1976 novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family by American author Alex Haley.
- Haley said that his account of Kunta's life in Roots is a mixture of fact and fiction.
- In the original miniseries, the character was portrayed as a teenager by LeVar Burton and as an adult by John Amos.
- Burton reprised his role in the 1988 TV movie Roots: The Gift .
- He was raised in a Muslim family.
Kunta Kinte ( KOON-tah KIN-tay) is the main character from the 1976 novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family by American author Alex Haley. Kunta Kinte was based on family oral tradition accounts of one of Haley's ancestors, a Gambian man who was born around 1767, enslaved, and taken to America where he died around 1822. Haley said that his account of Kunta's life in Roots is a mixture of fact and fiction.
Kunta Kinte's life story figured in two American television series based on the book: the original 1977 TV miniseries Roots, and a 2016 remake of the same title. In the original miniseries, the character was portrayed as a teenager by LeVar Burton and as an adult by John Amos. In the 2016 miniseries, he is portrayed by Malachi Kirby. Burton reprised his role in the 1988 TV movie Roots: The Gift.
Biography in Roots novel
According to the book Roots, Kunta Kinte was born circa 1750 in the Mandinka village of Jufureh, in The Gambia. He was raised in a Muslim family. In 1767, while Kunta was searching for wood to make a drum for his brother, four men chased him, surrounded him, and took him captive. Kunta awoke to find himself blindfolded, gagged, bound, and a prisoner. He and others were put on the slave ship the Lord Ligonier for a four-month Middle Passage voyage to North America.
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