KUNTA KINTE
Name: Kunta Kinte
Kunta Kinte (a.k.a Toby) is the central character of the novel, Roots: The Saga
of an American Family by Alex Haley, and of the television mini-series Roots,
based on the book. Roots is referred to by Haley as faction - a mixture of both
fact and fiction, and much of the book's material is borrowed from a book
called The African by Harold Courlander. Kunta Kinte was a Mandinka. Kunta was
captured and brought as a slave to Annapolis, Maryland, and later sold to a
plantation owner in Spotsylvania County, Virginia near the present-day rural
community of Partlow.
In the miniseries, the young character was portrayed by LeVar Burton, and the
older by John Amos.
There is a memorial to Kunta Kinte in Annapolis, Maryland. It is one of few
monuments in the world to bear the name of an actual enslaved African; other
examples include statues in Brazil of Zumbi from Palmares Quilombo (a black
leader of rebellions against slavery) and the statue of Bussa in Barbados. In a
set of four life size bronze statues, the Kunta Kinte memorial depicts Alex
Haley, book on his lap, telling his family's story to children of three
different ethnicities. Granite decorations and bronze plaques accompany the
statue group.
In a notorious incident, the original memorial, a bronze plaque, was stolen
within forty-eight hours after its installation in 1981. A card was left in its
place which read "You have been patronized by the Ku Klux Klan." The plaque was
never recovered and was replaced within two months with funds from local
residents. The second plaque was stolen as well.
Name: Kunta Kinte
Kunta Kinte (a.k.a Toby) is the central character of the novel, Roots: The Saga
of an American Family by Alex Haley, and of the television mini-series Roots,
based on the book. Roots is referred to by Haley as faction - a mixture of both
fact and fiction, and much of the book's material is borrowed from a book
called The African by Harold Courlander. Kunta Kinte was a Mandinka. Kunta was
captured and brought as a slave to Annapolis, Maryland, and later sold to a
plantation owner in Spotsylvania County, Virginia near the present-day rural
community of Partlow.
In the miniseries, the young character was portrayed by LeVar Burton, and the
older by John Amos.
There is a memorial to Kunta Kinte in Annapolis, Maryland. It is one of few
monuments in the world to bear the name of an actual enslaved African; other
examples include statues in Brazil of Zumbi from Palmares Quilombo (a black
leader of rebellions against slavery) and the statue of Bussa in Barbados. In a
set of four life size bronze statues, the Kunta Kinte memorial depicts Alex
Haley, book on his lap, telling his family's story to children of three
different ethnicities. Granite decorations and bronze plaques accompany the
statue group.
In a notorious incident, the original memorial, a bronze plaque, was stolen
within forty-eight hours after its installation in 1981. A card was left in its
place which read "You have been patronized by the Ku Klux Klan." The plaque was
never recovered and was replaced within two months with funds from local
residents. The second plaque was stolen as well.