Roots: The Saga of an American Family Memory and the Past Quotes

In Juffure, the elderly play a very important role for the younger generations, keeping track of history and relaying lessons learned from the past. This helps the culture stay true to its roots despite changes in the wider world.

Part of Kunta's final exam in school is to recount his family history. That's pretty amazing, but we wonder how many people these days would be to do that. Would you? Knowing this about Kunta's background, it's no wonder why he is so proud of his ancestral heritage, and so unwilling to let it go after he is kidnapped and brought to America.

Roots heavily favors oral traditions over written records. While Haley ultimately uses both to corroborate his research, he clearly has a preference for stories that are literally told.

Kunta is a teenager when he thinks this, so it's safe to say that the dude is mad profound. He has the Mandinka culture to thank for this, however, due to its emphasis on adhering to one's ancestral traditions.

Because he can't relate to the other slaves on the plantation, Kunta dives into his memory for comfort. It helps a little, but it's a bit like eating empty calories—you're going to need some hearty TLC sooner or later.

After enslaving Africans, white Americans systematically dismantled their cultures to strengthen their own dominance. After all, we've already seen how much useful knowledge and life experience Kunta gained from engaging with his Mandinka culture. To a slave-owner, that's a threat.

Kunta keeps his ancestry alive by teaching Mandinka words to Kizzy and regaling her with tales of the family's illustrious past. This is a life-changing moment for Kizzy, true, but it's also huge for Kunta. He's never had someone who he could share his past with like this, not even Bell.

From the time he's young, Chicken George dedicates himself to preserving the family legacy. And he does. In fact, with the help of the entire family, he keeps the story alive long enough for his great-great-grandson Alex Haley to turn it into something even more special.

Haley's talking about the Rosetta Stone, by the way. This is a powerful moment for him, as it represents his realization that he can use his family's stories to find his actual origin. That's a big deal. As you should have learned from the great onslaught of superhero movies, origin stories are very important to one's identity.

That's the truth. And guess what—so is Alex Haley. He might have written his stories down instead of keeping them locked up in the old head calculator, but he's definitely continuing the griots' tradition of connecting us to our pasts.