Kunta Kinte

Kunta Kinte is the central character of the first half of the novel ' by Alex Haley. Kunta Kinte was a Mandinka. He is also claimed as an ancestor by Haley, though this is unconfirmed. He was captured and imported to Baltimore, Maryland. He was later sold to a plantation owner in Spotsylvania County, Virginia near what is today the Partlow section.

Related Topics:
Novel - Alex Haley - Mandinka - Baltimore, Maryland - Spotsylvania County, Virginia - Partlow

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The young character was portrayed by LeVar Burton and the older by John Amos in a groundbreaking TV miniseries.

Related Topics:
LeVar Burton - John Amos - Groundbreaking TV miniseries

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There is a memorial to Kunta Kinte in Annapolis, Maryland. In a notorious incident, the Kunta Kinte plaque was stolen within 48 hours after its installation in 1981, allegedly by the Ku Klux Klan. The plaque was never recovered, but it was replaced within two months.

Related Topics:
Annapolis, Maryland - 1981 - Ku Klux Klan

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Haley's novel begins with Kunta's birth in the villiage of Juffure in the Gambia of West Africa in 1750. Kunta is the first of four sons of the Mandinka warrior Omoro and his wife Binta. Haley describes Kunta's strict upbringing and the rigors of manhood training he undergoes.

Related Topics:
Juffure - Gambia - 1750 - Mandinka

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One day in 1767, the young warrior leaves his village to chop wood when his nightmare begins. He is attacked by four white men who knock him out and take him captive. The most horrifying part of Haley's novel is where he describes this event. 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 and probing him in every orifice. Haley even describes how Kunta is sexually assaulted and burned with an iron. They even renamed him Toby much to Kunta's dismay. He and others are put on a slave ship for a nightmarish three month journey to America.

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Out of 140 Africans, Kunta is one of only 97 who survive the crossing. Even after he arrives in Maryland and is sold to a plantation owner, he never gives up his dreams of freedom and trying to escape, even after part of his foot is chopped off. Kunta eventually marries another slave named Bell and has a daughter named Kizzy. Unfortunately, Kizzy is sold away and Kunta spends his last years in perpetual sorrow.

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