![]() ![]() “I, we, need a place called Eden,” Haley said. ![]() Alex Haley knew about this more complex history, but he chose to portray Gambia as an African Eden. This episode portrays eighteenth century West Africa as a much more advanced society than how it was presented in the original book or television series. Kunta’s village, Juffure, is a busy trading hub and Kunta considers going to a university in Timbuktu. This comes through clearly in the first half-hour of the episode, where were see Kunta’s birth and manhood training in Gambia. This introduction is very brief (“This is how I heard about the boy, Kinte, and this is how I will tell you his story”), but it sets the tone that viewers should see Roots first and foremost as a story that will combine elements of fact and fiction.Īt the same time, the producers have made it clear in promoting the new series that this version aims to be more historically accurate than the 1977 version. The episode opens with a voice-over from Laurence Fishburne, who plays Alex Haley, the author of Roots. The differences between the original series and this new series were apparent almost immediately. If you have not seen the first episode yet, you may be spoiled.Īfter nearly forty years, Roots is back and the first episode of the History Channel’s reimagined Roots was very promising. This is the first of four daily recaps by Matthew Delmont, author of Making Roots: A Nation Captivated(coming August 2016) about the remake of Alex Haley’s Rootstelevision miniseries airing on HISTORY Channel.
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