Kunta Kinte: Difference between revisions
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There is an annual ''Kunta Kinte Heritage Festival'' held in Maryland.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kuntakinte.org/|title=Kunta Kinte Heritage Festival|accessdate=2007-12-12}}</ref> Kunta Kinte also inspired a [[reggae]] rhythm of the same name, performed by artists including [[The Revolutionaries]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pressure.co.uk/item/PSS015/|title=The Revolutionaries - Kunta Kinte|work=[[Pressure Sounds]]|accessdate=2007-12-12}}</ref> and [[Mad Professor]], and an album, ''Kunta Kinte Roots'' by [[Ranking Dread]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.roots-archives.com/release/1807|title=Kunta Kinte Roots|work=Roots Archives|accessdate=2007-12-12}}</ref> There is also a band of the same name.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.the-mag.me.uk/?ArticleId=1986|title=British Sea Power - Live (Kunta Kinte)|work=The Mag|accessdate=2007-12-12}}</ref> |
There is an annual ''Kunta Kinte Heritage Festival'' held in Maryland.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.kuntakinte.org/|title=Kunta Kinte Heritage Festival|accessdate=2007-12-12}}</ref> Kunta Kinte also inspired a [[reggae]] rhythm of the same name, performed by artists including [[The Revolutionaries]],<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.pressure.co.uk/item/PSS015/|title=The Revolutionaries - Kunta Kinte|work=[[Pressure Sounds]]|accessdate=2007-12-12}}</ref> and [[Mad Professor]], and an album, ''Kunta Kinte Roots'' by [[Ranking Dread]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.roots-archives.com/release/1807|title=Kunta Kinte Roots|work=Roots Archives|accessdate=2007-12-12}}</ref> There is also a band of the same name.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.the-mag.me.uk/?ArticleId=1986|title=British Sea Power - Live (Kunta Kinte)|work=The Mag|accessdate=2007-12-12}}</ref> |
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He is mentioned in the [[Kanye West]] song, ''[[The College Dropout|Never Let Me Down]]. ''He is also mentioned in Missy Elliot's 2002 hit 'Work it'. He is also mentioned in a song by Akir. An opening scene of ''[[Boyz in the Hood]]'' has one of the characters telling Jason "Furious" Styles's son "Who's he think you is? Kunta Kinte??" after seeing the chores which the son must do. |
He is mentioned in the [[Kanye West]] song, ''[[The College Dropout|Never Let Me Down]]. ''He is also mentioned in Missy Elliot's 2002 hit 'Work it'. He is also mentioned in a song by Akir. An opening scene of ''[[Boyz in the Hood]]'' has one of the characters telling Jason "Furious" Styles's son "Who's he think you is? Kunta Kinte??" after seeing the chores which the son must do. |
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By Helen *Hamleret |
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==References== |
==References== |
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Revision as of 20:10, 4 March 2008
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,[1] based on the book. Roots is referred to by Haley as faction - a mixture of both fact and fiction,[2] 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.
Memorial
There is a memorial to Kunta Kinte in Annapolis, Maryland.[3] 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.[citation needed]
Plot summary
Haley's novel begins with Kunta's birth in the village of Juffure in The Gambia of West Africa in 1750. Kunta is the first of four sons of the Mandinka warrior Oumaru and his wife Binta Kebba. Haley describes Kunta's strict upbringing and the rigors of manhood training he undergoes.
One day in 1767, when the young warrior left his village to find wood to make a drum, he was attacked by four men who surrounded him and took him captive. Kunta awakens to find himself blindfolded, gagged, bound and prisoner of the white men. Haley describes how they humiliate the young warrior by stripping him naked, probing him in every orifice, and branding him with a hot iron. He and others are put on a slave ship for a nightmarish three month journey to America.
Out of 140 Africans, Kunta is one of only 98 who survive the crossing. After arrival in Maryland he is sold to a plantation owner who renames him "Toby," much to his dismay. During the remainder of his life Kunta never gives up his dreams of freedom and trying to escape, even after part of his foot is chopped off. (He was running and the slave catchers caught him and he had a choice to be castrated or lose part of his foot.) He eventually marries another slave named Bell Waller and has a daughter named Kizzy (Keisa, in Mandinka/Mandingo), which in Kunta's native tongue means to "stay put". Unfortunately, Kizzy is later sold away when she is discovered to have written a fake traveling pass for a young slave boy she was in love with. 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.
The rest of the book tells the story of the generations between Kizzy and Alex Haley, describing their suffering, losses and eventual triumphs in America.[4]
Bold text--209.254.12.73 (talk) 20:08, 4 March 2008 (UTC)==Influence== There is an annual Kunta Kinte Heritage Festival held in Maryland.[5] Kunta Kinte also inspired a reggae rhythm of the same name, performed by artists including The Revolutionaries,[6] and Mad Professor, and an album, Kunta Kinte Roots by Ranking Dread.[7] There is also a band of the same name.[8] He is mentioned in the Kanye West song, Never Let Me Down. He is also mentioned in Missy Elliot's 2002 hit 'Work it'. He is also mentioned in a song by Akir. An opening scene of Boyz in the Hood has one of the characters telling Jason "Furious" Styles's son "Who's he think you is? Kunta Kinte??" after seeing the chores which the son must do. By Helen *Hamleret
References
- ^ Bird, J.B., ROOTS, retrieved 2007-11-21
- ^ Wynn, Linda T., ALEX HALEY (1921-1992), retrieved 2007-11-21
- ^ The Kunta Kinte-Alex Haley Foundation, Inc., The Kunta Kinte-Alex Haley Memorial, retrieved 2007-11-21
- ^ "Kunta Kinte". Alex Haley Foundation. Retrieved 2007-11-11.
- ^ "Kunta Kinte Heritage Festival". Retrieved 2007-12-12.
- ^ "The Revolutionaries - Kunta Kinte". Pressure Sounds. Retrieved 2007-12-12.
- ^ "Kunta Kinte Roots". Roots Archives. Retrieved 2007-12-12.
- ^ "British Sea Power - Live (Kunta Kinte)". The Mag. Retrieved 2007-12-12.