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SATURDAY, APRIL 22, 2017 A view of Kunta Kinteh island from off the coast. Gambia’s race to save its ‘Roots’ on Kunta Kinteh Island s the rebel slave who defied his captors, American author Alex Haley’s “Roots: The Saga that occupy the island once housed dozens of capital, Banjul, referring to President Adama Kunta Kinte, immortalized in print and on of an American Family”. The late Haley claimed captured west Africans awaiting passage to the Barrow, who took office in February. “There was a Ascreen in “Roots”, put The Gambia on the to be a descendant of Kinte but doubts have New World, but whole sections of the slaves’ lot of pressure, particularly from the former presi- map for historical tourism. But the island where been cast over the authenticity of this claim. quarters have already been reclaimed by the riv- dent, to sort of sift the history of the island,” he he and tens of thousands of West African slaves Although “Roots” has been criticized for his- er’s salty waves and high winds. said. “We resisted, and that resistance made the faced the horrors of being chained, branded and torical inaccuracies, it indisputably heightened government reduce its attention and support.” separated before leaving their homeland forev- awareness of the horrors of the slave trade when Decades of neglect He said that Jammeh even added mandato- er, is under threat from sea erosion and neglect. published in 1976. The UN’s cultural agency For Hassoum Ceesay, a historian and official at ry days in his home village, Kanilai, to a tour Kinte’s descendants, along with heritage offi- awarded the island World Heritage status as a The Gambia’s National Centre for Arts and Culture, aimed at diaspora tourists as part of a “Roots” cials, warn that without urgent action, 550 years memorial to an “important, although painful, it is time to seize the chance to reverse what he festival, even though it is unrelated to the site. of history could be lost. They are pressuring the period of human history”, spanning the arrival of describes as two decades of neglect under former Tourism numbers were badly hit by the pro- new government to preserve the country’s his- Portuguese traders in the mid-15th century leader Yahya Jammeh, or risk losing the island. tracted political crisis caused by Jammeh’s torical memory for the next generation of through to its use as a holding cell for illegal “We are very hopeful that with this new govern- refusal to quit after 22 years at the helm when Gambians and tourists. The island’s namesake slavers after Britain’s abolition of the trade in ment there will be more attention paid,” he told he lost an election in December, another con- sprang to fame as the central character in 1807. The parched-looking trees and brick ruins AFP in a book-lined room at his home near the cern for heritage experts. A photo taken on A view of Kunta April 8, 2017 shows Kinteh Island, Mariama Fofana, formerly known as believed to be an James Island, an eighth-generation island in the descendent of Kunta Gambia River, 30 Kinte, sits in her home km from the river in Juffureh, a village mouth and near close to the island of Juffureh. Kunta Kinteh. — AFP photos.