Even though his movie was a fiction, the hero of the movie was actually real: Who is Kunta Kinte?

Although the movie, which has become legendary with its name, was fiction, the hero of the movie, Kunta Kinte, was actually real.

According to research by Alex Haley, Kunta Kinte was an African from the town of Jufferee in Gambia. According to Haley's family history, he was sold into slavery in a town called "Naples".

In his research, Haley identified a slave ship named Lord Ligonier, which set sail from the Gambia River on July 5, 1767, with 140 captives. The ship arrived in Annapolis, Maryland, on September 29, 1767, with only 98 survivors.

Haley believed that one of the survivors was seventeen-year-old Kunta Kinte. According to an ad published in a Maryland newspaper, this African man was sold into slavery on October 7.

Kunta Kinte (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 one of Haley's ancestors, a Gambian man who was born around 1750, 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.

Kunta Kinte's life story was also featured in two US-produced television series based on this book. In the film's 1977 miniseries Roots and the 2016 remake of the same name, the character was portrayed by LeVar Burton as a teenager and John Amos as an adult.

Burton reprised his role in the TV movie Roots, The Gift, a fictional story that aired during the 1988 Christmas season. Kinte was one of those to be purchased from the ship or local merchants and was later taken to a farm in Virginia.

Kinte's arrival in Annapolis meant that African men, women, and children were stuffed into the holds of ships for months. Only those who could endure the horrors of the middle passages of ships crossing the Atlantic could survive this journey.

Alex Haley used Kinte in his work to tell his story in the movie Roots.

According to the book Roots, Kunta Kinte was born in the Mandinka village of Jufureh, Gambia, around 1750. He grew up in a Muslim family.

In 1767, while Kunta was searching for wood to make a drum for his younger brother, four men kidnapped him and took him prisoner. When Kunta woke up, he found himself a blindfolded and gagged prisoner.

He and the others were put on a ship, the Lord Ligonier, bound for North America for a four-month voyage. Kunta ultimately survived the journey to Maryland and was sold to John Waller, a rancher in Spotsylvania County.

He rejected the name given to him by his owners, and after being recaptured in the last of four escape attempts, slave catchers offered him a choice. He would either be castrated or his right foot would be amputated.

He chose to amputate his foot and his right foot was amputated. Over the years, Kunta resigned himself to his fate, but never forgot his identity and origins, and developed more intimate friendships with his fellow slaves.

Kunta married a similarly enslaved woman named Belle Waller and had a daughter, Mandinka, named Kizzy. In the novel, Kizzy never learns the fate of her family.

He spent the rest of his life as a field hand at the Lea vineyard in North Carolina. Kizzy happens to be Haley's only ancestor with a genealogical connection to Kunta Kinte, who spent most of his life as a slave.

The second part of the book chronicles the generational pain, loss, and ultimate triumph in America between Kizzy and Alex Haley. Author Alex Haley claimed to be a seventh-generation descendant of Kunta Kinte.

Haley claimed that his sources for the origins of Kunta Kinte were oral family tradition and a man named Kebba Kanga Fofana, who claimed to be someone in Gambia with knowledge of the Kinte clan.

He described them as a family where the men were blacksmiths, descended from a maraba named Kairaba Kunta Kinte, originally from Mauritania. Haley said Fofana told her:

When the king's soldiers arrived, Kunta, the eldest of these four sons, left this village to chop wood and was never seen again.

However, journalists and historians later discovered that Fofana was not a griot. In retelling the Kinte story, Fofana changed important details such as his father's name, his brothers' names, and his age.

At one point, he placed Kunta Kinte in a generation living in the twentieth century. It is also known that, with the only notable exception of Kunta Kinte, elders, and griots were unable to provide reliable genealogical information before the mid-19th century.

Haley had apparently mentioned Kunta Kinte to so many people that he had created a case of circular reporting, having his own words repeated back to his rather than independent confirmation of the Kunta Kinte story.

After Haley's book gained nationwide fame, American author Harold Courlander noted that the chapter describing Kinte's life was apparently taken from Courlander's 1967 novel The African.

Haley at first denied the accusation, but later issued a public statement confirming that Courlander's book was the source, and Haley attributed the mistake to one of his co-researchers.

According to historian John Thornton, director of the Afro-American Studies program at Boston University, the historical Kunta Kinte was indeed from the town of Jufureh, then part of the kingdom, and was from a Muslim Jula family that had moved there a generation before his birth.

He came from a family of merchants who were involved in all commercial matters, including the slave trade. He was sold into slavery in 1767.

His sale into slavery is notable for his family's social status as middle-class merchants, as well as ongoing debates about whether it was permissible to sell Muslims as slaves to Christians.

His being sold into slavery probably had something to do with factional disputes between the Jula or merchants, as well as the Kingdom of Niumi's dispute with a British trading post at the time, in which the two sides took hostages.

Kunta Kinte inspired an album of the same name. This came to life as a track called 'Beware of Your Enemies', which was broadcast on Channel One in Jamaica.

It became an anthem for many years, being the subject of a dance music project released by Channel One house band The Revolutionaries in 1976, and also inspired a UK version produced by Mad Professor in 1981.

The Kunta Kinte Heritage Festival, held annually in Maryland, is another aspect of this film's transformation into a steady source of income. In fact, Kendrick Lamar's 2015 song "King Kunta" was inspired by the character.

Again, Athlete Colin Kaepernick wore a controversial T-shirt with the words "Kunta Kinte" written on it at the NFL draft.

As a TV series, Roots captivated audiences when it debuted in 1977. Based on Alex Haley's best-selling novel about his family's history, this is the story of young Kunta Kinte and his descendants who were taken from their home in West Africa in 1767 and sold into slavery in America.

This story was watched by approximately 130 million viewers, was nominated for 37 Emmys, and won 9 awards. Malachi Kirby taking on the iconic role of Gambian warrior Kunta Kinte in the remake of the History Channel's 1977 miniseries Roots has literally been said to be a spiritual journey.

When we look at all these successful promotions and awards, African people have not gained anything from Gambian Kunta Kinte's films or awards.

The grandchildren of those who enslaved Kunta Kinte still continue to exploit millions of oppressed Africans like him.