Alex Haley's novel Roots has the lead character of Kunta Kinte, is he possibly an ancestor of Haley's?

Kunta Kinte (also known as Toby Waller) ( c. 1750 - c. 1822) is a character in the novel Roots:

The saga of an American family by American author, Alex Haley.

Haley claimed that Kunta Kinte was possibbly based on one of his ancestors:

A Gambian man, who was born 1750. Enslaved & taken to America. Who died in 1822. .

More Info: en.wikipedia.org

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44 Comments

Bill Coe

How did this get through the vetting process with an almost nonexistent explanation, rife with spelling and grammatical errors.

Sean Philips

Poor question and even worse explanation

Wayne Williams

This is total crap. I’m possibly the ancestor of Boris Yeltsin.

Syed Hussain

After writing mine, I read all the comments and that this QC Q is enough to blackball the QC and some of the q-setters. But MORE TO THE POINT IS QC's total lack of courtesies in responding to such feedbacks and accept the suggestions and views of the participants, whose scores most of the time are , to say the least, brilliant and that fact QC you also admit . But then what prevents you from being not hypocritical. I wonder in your company my English is getting pretty bashed up. Please let us raise our , ahem, glass, cane, whatever. The red letters QC puts on top '' Your opinion matters'' are honoured in their breach. 19/09/2018

Syed Hussain

A totally non-conclusive speculation. I read the book, saw the film, I have visited that island near Senegal that was the main slave-holding place with these unfortunate innocent souls walked to the slaveships anchored and many sick and tortured men and women would fall off the planks into the crocodile-infested waters. The air and the environ around are still laden with the sighs and sadness of these totally exploited humans. And that is the sin and ignominy of the slave-peddling nations to be atoned till eternity. A saga made us weep blood... SMH ///19/09/2018

mikewkirby

Possibly. Where did the person who wrote that question study English?

Kandy Ferrari

Love it

Noreen Kelly

I answered Nowhere is the resource information to make this a valid ques.? Purely speculation!

Jem Alonso

The book was even betterCriona Walsh,

Paul Stringer

Dumb question

matthew rosa

Alex Haley Was The First African-American To Truly Delve Into His Family History To Before 1865, A Time When It Was Thought, -By Most People, -That Such Information Was Negligible Owing To The Belief That Such Records Were Destroyed By The Civil War And/Or Were Consigned To The Back Of A Plantation's Livestock Records!-But He Proved Them Wrong Just By The Paper Trail Alone! (Remember, In The 1960's-1970's, The Period In Which He Was Researching And Writing, There Was No D.N.A. Genome Research At The Time!) Producing A Lush, Detailed, And Powerful Record Of Our Indictment Of Slavery In Our History As Experienced By Just This One Family!