Word: griot
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Dates: during 1976-1976
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Haley's genealogical search took him back to West Africa. In Gambia he encountered an aged griot-a, tribal oral historian-who traced Haley's lineage back centuries before Kunta Kinte was snatched by slavers in 1767. The emotional impact of hearing his forebears named cannot be overestimated. Roots' opening section, a fictionalization of Kunta's birth, Moslem upbringing and manhood rites, have a vividness of detail that only the impassioned imagination can provide. Consider this for example...