Roots: The Saga of an American Family Chapters 11-15 Summary

The harvest is well underway, which means that "Juffure's annual seven-day harvest festival" will be going down soon enough (11.2).
As the festival draws closer, music starts getting played on a 24/7 basis. The women are done up to the nines, adorned with makeup to darken their skin tone.
Still a youngster, Kunta is confused by all of this. When Omoro sees this, he pulls his son aside and tells him, ""The more blackness a woman has, the more beautiful she is" (11.13).

Kunta wakes up at dawn like a kid on Christmas—it's the day of the festival.
Outside, the adults of the village are playing music and dancing. Even the elderly join in.
The following day consists of plenty of food and even more music. There are a host of visitors, both Muslim and non-Muslim, who arrive to take part in the festivities and peddle their wares.
Several days later, the griots arrive. In West African society, griots are storytellers who pass down oral traditions, often involving a musical component.
In the middle of the sixth day, the festival is interrupted by the sound of a "strange drum" (12.12). It's saying something, too: another village's wrestlers are claiming that they could beat Juffure's best wrestlers harder than Hogan slammed Andre.
The heels arrive and square up against the hometown babyfaces. It's a neck and neck battle, but Juffure's team eventually wins. We can only assume that the match ended with a pile-driver.

On the last morning of the harvest festival, "Kunta was awakened by the sound of screams" (13.1). That can't be good.
Kunta checks out the scene and sees the men of the village wearing white hoods, screaming at the third-kafo boys.
What the what? As it turns out, this is the beginning of the third-kafo boys' manhood training, which is a secretive and intimidating rite of passage required for all males. It supposedly lasts a full year. Dang.
Kunta tries to push this out of his mind as he continues learning how to goatherd. For the most part, however, he practices with his slingshot and runs around with his dog.
He also daydreams a lot. In one such daydream, he kills a buffalo that has been terrorizing the village and is rewarded with the affection of the "most beautifully black of all the maidens in Juffure" (13.14).
In other words, a little thing called puberty is about to rear its pimply little head.

We're now five months into the "dry season" (14.1). Kunta and his goat-herding pals spend their days chilling in a field, trying to avoid first-kafo kids like Lamin.
Before they know it, however, it's hotter than Hades and dryer than a stale piece of bread. Marital discord skyrockets during this period, only to plummet once the weather improves.
Even at seven, Kunta is well aware of the cycle of hardship that his people endure.

Binta's pregnant again.
Now that she has another bun in the oven, Binta forces Kunta to take Lamin with him everywhere he goes.
Although Kunta still acts put off by his little bro, he secretly loves having him around. It makes him feel grown-up to be the one doing the explaining for once, even if he has to ask Mom and Dad for the info every now and again.