Faction

When he published Roots, Alex Haley coined a new term to describe his approach: "faction." You know—fact plus fiction. Pretty straightforward, right?

The Question of Accuracy

Here's how he explains his approach at the end of the novel:

To the best of my knowledge and of my effort, every lineage statement within Roots is from either my African or American families' carefully preserved oral history, much of which I have been able conventionally to corroborate with documents. (120.67)

Since the novel's release, however, there's been a range of critiques against the historical validity of his research. For example, many have claimed that the griot (oral storyteller) who told Haley about the Kinte family genealogy was not officially recognized by the Gambian government. Others critique his American research, saying that additional examination reveals other, more likely candidates for Haley's ancestors in the historical record.

(No one, however, is disputing the fact that Roots is an awesome book.)

Oral Traditions and the Nature of Fiction

This actually gets at the real crux of the issue: the nature of oral tradition. While oral traditions are incredibly valuable things that give us a sense of the emotions and experiences of our ancestors, they're not typically one-hundred-percent factually accurate. As stories get passed down over the generations, key details can be changed in order to get at all that juicy truth underneath the facts.

So what's our point? Well, while it's certainly valid to critique Roots if it does indeed stray from the historical record, as that was one of Haley's big selling points for the novel, we don't think that's the end of the conversation.

His oral traditions are real. His conversations with his family are real. His research is real and his writing is real. Whether or not you can identify a different historical Kunta, it's hard to dispute the truths that at the core of Roots.

Still, we couldn't blame you for feeling burnt if Haley's claims don't turn out to be totally accurate. No one likes to feel misled. That being said, we'd argue that Haley's difficulty corroborating his research only strengthens his argument that the institution of slavery did something uniquely evil by stripping a people of their cultural heritage.