When You Start About Family, About Lineage

Early In The Spring Of 1750, In The Village Of Juffure, Four Days Upriver From The Coast Of The Gambia, West Africa, A Manchild Was Born To Omoro And Binta Kinte.

Either You Deal With What Is The Reality, Or You Can Be Sure That The Reality Is Going To Deal With You.

I Travel A Lot. It Used To Be, When I Would Go To Any Country, I Could Guarantee That The First Question Would Establish My Name, And The Fact That I've Written Roots, And The Third Question, At Least No Later Than The Fourth Question Would Not Be A Question, So Much As A Statement, Something Like, "we Understand That In America White People Do Such And Such Bad Things To Black People."

My Parents Were Teachers And They Went Out Of Their Way To See To It That I Had Books. We Grew Up In A Home That Was Full Of Books. And So I Learned To Read. I Loved To Read.

I Look At My Books The Way Parents Look At Their Children. The Fact That One Becomes More Successful Than The Others Doesn't Make Me Love The Less Successful One Any Less.