The story of seven generations, whose most ancient ancestor is Kunta Kinte, a Gambian. He is abducted forcibly from his African village and enslaved. The author Alex Haley goes back, back to his roots, to his great great great grand father’s African village putting together all his painstaking research to produce this moving book. In his attempt to reconstruct the history of his African ancestor and the successive generations, the author touches upon the extraordinarily significant questions of freedom and life.
Why has history been so biased?
Why for instance have we failed to take note of the insults, miseries, humiliations and tortures that have been heaped upon a people? Why has the White man failed to respect the African? Why are the Blacks not a part of humanity, and just slaves in a white man’s world? Who or what has given the right or the authority to the White man to bind the Black people to slavery? The scale of the human tragedy that is played out in the novel brings tears. Kunta Kinte and Bell are separated from their daughter Kizzy who is sold off. Kunta’s foot is chopped off by the sneering, leering, whip cracking American slave hunters.
I also liked the wonderful descriptions of life in a Mandinko village. There are haunting descriptions of Nature. The quiet rhythms of Africa, the abundant natural gifts that God has bestowed on this beautiful land; the lyricism and stoicism of an ancient people are evoked beautifully in the novel.
The simple emotions of love, affection and the constant fear of separation; separation that is not just physical but psychological and cultural. The enormous void that accompanies the displacement. The effort to replace themselves and start a life, the coming to terms with an alien culture that is disgusting and distrustful, the effort to comprehend, to construct the complete picture especially in Kunta’s case and simultaneously pining for home. It is absolutely stunning. I would say a kind of catharsis but also a bold indictment.That is what Roots is. (To be continued)