Roots: The Saga of an American Family Chapters 31-35 Summary

This chapter begins with a description of the "Council of Elders," which is Juffure's governing body (31.1). They oversee everything from business deals to marital arrangements.
At one meeting, two of Kunta's kafo-mates express their desire to have "teriya friendships" with two older widows in the village (31.13). In a teriya friendship, a younger man can offer to take care of a widow in sort of half-marriage arrangement.
Both widows are psyched, and the boys are upstanding members of the community, so the council gives their approval.
Kunta, still confused by his burgeoning sexuality, can't stop thinking about it that night.

Kunta is still thinking about his bros' new teriya friendship as he stands guard at night, waiting to cut some wood for a new drum the following morning.
Our hero is smart, strong, and resilient, but he's hopeless when it comes to the ladies. He spends about a dozen paragraphs worrying about their "confusing" nature" (32.6).
He takes his mind off it by fantasizing about his future travels across Africa.
Once daybreak hits, he grabs his axe and heads off in search of some perfect drum wood.

After heading deep into the forest, Kunta finds a good candidate. Before he can start chopping, however, he hears the snap of a twig and a flurry of activity.
It's a toubob. Oh no. Kunta tries to fight back, but he's struck over the head and falls into unconsciousness.

Kunta wakes up "naked" and "chained" between two other men (34.1). They're inside a room somewhere, and Kunta can hear cries of pain coming from every direction.
He tries to keep calm, but it's hard. All around him, his fellow Africans are shouting in their varied native tongues and crying with pain.
Confused, he tries to remember what exactly happened. He can remember fighting back against the toubob and "slatees" (Africans who aided in the slave trade), but there were too many of them.

Kunta can tell the time based on the occasional opening of a "deck hatch," so it's fair to assume that he's locked inside a ship (35.1).
The hatch only opens at feeding time, but Kunta is too angry and defiant to accept the toubob's food. He still can't believe he'll never see Africa again.
Suddenly, he hears someone speaking a mix of Mandinka and the toubob tongue. It seems like the toubob have betrayed one of the slatees and locked him up with the others.
Based on what we hear, the slatee is killed by one of the enslaved Africans in short order.
The slavers don't find the body for another day. In their anger, they beat the shackled people with even more intensity than usual, killing the man that murdered the slatee.
Everyone's shaken. Suddenly, an older voice rings out: "We must be in this place as one village!" (35.14). They need to work together if they want to survive.