Alex haley biography kunta kinteh

Character in Alex Haley's Roots

For the Keak da Sneak album, see Kunta Kinte (album).

Fictional character

Kunta Kinte (KOON-tah KIN-tay; c. 1750 – c. 1822) is a fictional character in the 1976 novel Roots: The Saga of an American Family by American author Alex Haley.

Kunta Kinte was based on family oral tradition accounts of one of Haley's ancestors, a Gambian man who was born around 1767, enslaved, and taken to America where he died around 1822. Haley said that his account of Kunta's life in Roots is a mixture of fact and fiction.^[1]

Kunta Kinte's life story figured in two US television series based on the book: the original 1977 TV miniseries Roots,^[2] and a 2016 remake of the same name.

In the original miniseries, the character was portrayed as a teenager by LeVar Burton and as an adult by John Amos. In the 2016 miniseries, he is portrayed by Malachi Kirby.^[3] Burton reprised his role in the 1988 TV movie R