Where It All Goes Down
Juffure/America
The contrast between Africa and America is at the heart of Roots. For Kunta, Africa is a beautiful continent with diverse people and limitless possibilities. America—a little less so. Either way, there's no better way to understand the book than to look at the many places it takes us to.
Golden Years
Kunta's childhood is idyllic, though he experiences many hard times. Juffure is located in a rather harsh area of The Gambia, and its intense dry season makes it extremely difficult to feed a community throughout the whole year.
Take a look at this:
By late evening, each family would meet back at their hut bringing whatever each individual had found—perhaps even a mole or a handful of large grubworms, if they were lucky. (4.13)
Most of the time, however, it's a dream. Kunta studies from the Koran and learns to read and write in Arabic. He also enjoys participating in the many cultural celebrations particular to his tribe—the Mandinka—and traveling around the region with his father. All in all, it's the best childhood a kid could ask for.
The Ship
Sadly, as we know, this is all cut short when Kunta is kidnapped, brought aboard a slave ship and chained below deck with his fellow Africans, many of whom are wounded and super-sick. It might be the most gut-wrenching section in the entire book.
Here's how he reacts when he first gains consciousness:
Kunta wondered if he had gone mad. Naked, chained, shackled, he awoke on his back between two other men in a pitch darkness full of steamy heat and sickening stink. (34.1)
The slave hold becomes even worse as the voyage drags on, with the prisoners' bodily fluids accumulating and coating the hold with a thick grease. This is pretty rough image…which is exactly why we're bringing it up. In order to truly understand the horrors of the American slave trade, and especially the trans-Atlantic slave route, which left as many as forty percent of its imprisoned passengers dead before reaching its destination, we need to look hard at uncomfortable truths like this.
The New World
America, as you can imagine, is an immediate culture shock to Kunta. Here's how he reacts when he first steps foot on land:
Kunta's nostrils detected a new small in the air; actually, it was a mingling of many smells, most of them strange and unknown to him. (40.6)
The remainder of his time in America is spent on a series of plantations, some of which are ramshackle, some of which are nice. ("Nice" of course, is a relative term—nothing run by slave labor can actually be nice?) Though they have varying degrees of quality—and varying attitudes from their owners—nothing changes the fact that they are facilities where individuals are dehumanized, abused, and forced into labor. This is something Kunta notes again and again when he sees slaves act as if the plantations are their homes.
Once the family is freed, however, we reach the promised land—Henning, Tennessee. There, the family becomes one of the most prominent in the community, founding businesses, marrying into other prominent families, and even helping build the town's first black church.
Henning is evidence of how far the family has come, and how their commitment to one another has allowed them to survive through such trying circumstances.