Talk:Kunta Kinte

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Untitled[edit]

Nobody questions the existance of Kunta Kinte or his being Alex Haley's great great great great grandfather. Roots is accepted as half fictitious and half factual, no one has ever proven that Roots and the character of Haleys great X4 grandfather was a blatant fabrication. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 24.141.94.61 (talk • contribs) 27 May 2006.

OK, what is known about the documentation behind Haley's research? But please let's keep it civil and focussed on improving the encyclopedia article or don't bother.DavidOaks 22:23, 12 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

The statement that "nobody questions the existance of Kunta Kinte or his being Alex Haley's great great great great grandfather" is false. Haley's research on the historical Kunta Kinte most definitely has been called into question by legitimate scholars. See here. Mwelch 22:27, 28 July 2006 (UTC)[reply]

the think i know that, my cooky's that is my life i know that my place not support i think off it. as poem i knew that is not Tokay. Is that i knew that slavery is just a black and white men who use that slavery is just you. take up of the white man's burden--ye dare stoop to less--nor call too on freedom to cloak your weariness. by all ye or do, the silent sullen peoples shall weigh your god and you.t the way i you is by look in you eyes.

Weren't the four men who captured him black?

-- Mik 22:15, 4 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

(Reguarding "One day in 1767, when the young warrior left his village to chop wood, he was attacked by four white men who knocked him out and took him captive.")

"the only monument in the world to bear the name of an actual enslaved African" seems unlikely. What about Pero's Bridge for example? Citation needed methinks. Richard Pinch 18:56, 23 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

"In actuality, Roots was the first miniseries on television, and coincidentally, it was shown around the time of the bicentennial celebration of the United States." This is not supported by the article Miniseries from which one can gather that British television had been using the minseries format muich earlier, and that even if the claim is limited to American television, then Roots was an early but not the first miniseries, although was was indeed hugely successful. The comment about the bicentennial seems an odd and slightly vague way of giving the date: it was broadcast in 1977. Richard Pinch 16:04, 24 September 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Distinguish known information from Roots character[edit]

The article is very vague on what is known of Kunta Kinte apart from what was in Roots. If he was a real person, the article lead ought to begin by describing him as such, not saying "the central character in Roots".

At the very least, even if we accept Haley's claims about the existence of Kunta Kinte and his descent from him without question, Roots must have at least involved some creative reconstruction of events just in order to tell a story. We ought to distinguish what is known externally about Kunta Kinte from the Roots account. --Saforrest 21:21, 5 March 2007 (UTC)[reply]

I concur completely - it would be good to know the "man" (Kunta Kinte as discovered thru scholarly research) versus K.K. the "character" (from the novel Roots)...Let's face it, anyone can read the novel and know the character - but very few people have access to the resources Haley supposedly found about the man. Wikipedia, as an encyclopedia, is a great place to record the facts, whatever they may be. I suspect there isn't much known at all about him: perhaps some old courthouse records of sale and maybe a family Bible entry??...Engr105th 14:30, 4 September 2007 (UTC)[reply]

=contraditorial statement[edit]

if your gonna list other statues of enslaved africans, then you can't say it's the only statue in the world.

Exactly where does it state in the book that Kunta Kinte is Muslim? I read the book numerous times as a child and do not recall EVER seeing anything of that sort. Is this an inference made based on his African heritage and the belief that Islam originated in Africa? Are we supposed to beleive that all Black Africans are Muslim? That line either needs subsantiation or needs to be removed.Gbryanh (talk) 13:13, 23 September 2010 (UTC)[reply]

The book makes numerous references in Kinte's "voice" to Allah, marabouts, swine, etc. "And, as devout Muslims, they would have died rather than eat the flesh of the wild pigs..." :: — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.63.247.38 (talk) 05:41, 18 May 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I realize the previous statements are six years old. But, I found them when I was searching the web for references to Kinte being Muslim. In the 2016 History Channel's production of Roots, Kunte's father says, "Allah o akbar" before holding him up tot he stars after he got his name. Then, later on in the episode one of the village elders vary clearly mentions Allah by name. Robertjm (talk) 23:02, 8 October 2016 (UTC)[reply]

Regarding the monument[edit]

"It is the only monument in the world to bear the name of an actual enslaved African, apart from the Zumbi from Palmares Kilumbu (a negro leader of rebellions against slavery) statues in Brazil and Bussa statue in Barbados."

So, it's the only monument in the world to bear the name of an actual enslaved African, except it's not. How enlightening. -84.251.231.185 13:25, 19 April 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Impartiality[edit]

BEST OF THE NOVELS ??? HEEE... Impartiality someone ? --69.159.93.105 16:22, 4 May 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Cultural Impact and Understanding

"I was glad to find the Kunta Kinte reference page. I was 13 years old when I watched Roots. It was 30 years ago. It changed me for the rest of my life. I am white and I grew up in an all white school. I needed to see Roots to understand things better. I have raised all my children in the air and shouted, "Kunta Kinte" while they were babies. My wife has never understood this, but to me it means I am proud of my child and I present him or her to God and the rest of the world. I apologize if this is not an appropriate comment, but whether or not the character was real or portrayed exactly right by the creator of Roots is not that important to me. The lesson and understanding the story conveyed at the time was where the power came from.

With all due respect, your wife is not the only person who does not understand this. John Paul Parks (talk) 12:07, 25 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Plaque Theft: Twice?[edit]

In its present state the article describes the memorial plaque to Kunta Kinte as having been stolen twice. After a quick search around the web I found only references to it being stolen once. For example: http://www.kuntakinte.com/memorialelements.html --Jarsyl (talk) 06:22, 22 February 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Infact a quck search brought me to Kintahaley.org where there little tourism info page thing states "The plaque visitors see today is the 1981 replacement plaque.", so that it was stolen would appear to be a blatant lie. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 24.137.207.191 (talk) 03:00, 17 June 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Influences / Cultural Impact[edit]

In the Film, In The Loop (2008), Malcolm Tucker (Peter Capaldi) upon hiring Toby Wright (Chris Addison) on the fly during a crisis, gives him his marching orders in strong language and adds, 'You are my Kunta Kinte'. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Spiderspit (talk • contribs) 12:31, 19 November 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Plot Summary - a discrepancy[edit]

The 3rd paragraph of the plot summary says "Years later Kizzy asks a slave she falls in love with to talk to her father, only to discover to her dismay that he had died, but died saying the words he taught her in his native tongue. After she asks for a moment alone at her father's grave, she crosses out "Toby" on the headstone and writes Kunta Kinte, knowing her father's true name."....This is totally erroneous: It does not occur anywhere in the novel. (I've read it several times). In fact, Kizzy's only love interest is the boy Noah, for whom she forges a travelling pass which ultimately is what gets her sold away from the Waller plantation in Va to the Lea farm in Casell Co, NC - as alluded to earlier in that paragraph... She has no romances after Noah, and never learned the fate of Noah, Kunta or Bell...If no one has evidence otherwise, I'll change that innaccuracy. Engr105th (talk) 22:35, 24 April 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Made some changes to that paragraph; clarified that in the book, Kizzy never sees her parents or Noah again and never has another 'romance'...Engr105th (talk) 02:35, 26 May 2008 (UTC)[reply]

The incident about the tombstone occurs in the television show. John Paul Parks (talk) 12:05, 25 July 2008 (UTC)[reply]

question[edit]

According to the movie Roots,what is life in Africa like? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 41.232.107.89 (talk) 00:47, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

i think there needs to be more info —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.110.7.239 (talk) 15:05, 1 October 2009 (UTC)[reply]

Material copied from another author's book[edit]

Haley attributed the error to a mistake of one of his assistant researchers

Who's calling the copying an "error"? Is it Haley, or is it we who are affirming the act of copying was an error? Some might call it plagiarism, which if not a crime is certainly something the academic world disapproves of.

I'd like to change this sentence to:

Haley said that the copying was "a mistake", made by one of his assist researchers

--Uncle Ed (talk) 15:01, 3 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

They Don't want you to know[edit]

The reason the article doesn;t aknowledge that this is based on real life historical events, and that kunta kinta is a distant relative to alex haley, is the very same reason why no cable provider in the us runs this show anymore. Because they don't want you to know. They don;t want african americans to know that there roots where islamic, and that they had a flourishing civilisation in west africa, they want to hide the barbarity of the christians slave holders and the enforcement of christianity. Thats why, and thats why Wikipedia is a crock of ????? :-) best go to muslimwiki 82.178.72.16 (talk) 12:59, 23 April 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Mini-series[edit]

Kunta Kinte was bought by the Reynolds family (not the Wallers). Also, in the mini-seires, Kunta Kinte died in 1822. Thus birth & death was (1750-1822) for Kunta Kinte; (1790-??) for Kizzy; (1806-1883) for Chicken George. GoodDay (talk) 05:57, 14 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

This article seems to mix the miniseries and the novel up. Wagner ^u t c 11:14, 19 February 2012 (UTC)[reply]

religion?[edit]

sources say he was a muslim so why is that not in the article? Baboon43 (talk) 06:46, 4 July 2013 (UTC)[reply]

Fact and Fiction[edit]

This article seems to state a lot of facts from Roots, and is written in a present-tense format as though it is explaining the plot of the show. Can someone please distinguish these by putting in "true" facts in one section, because these are far too detailed to be about a slave from the late 18th century with limited sources. --ConCass (talk) 16:36, 18 October 2013 (UTC)[reply]

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