Roots BrE AmE
(1976) a novel by the US writer Alex Haley(1921–92) which was also made into a television programme. It tells the story of several ↑ generation s of an African-American family, and it is partly based on stories told in Haley's own family. The story starts with Kunta Kinte, a man from West Africa who is caught and taken to the US as a ↑ slave , and then describes what happens to him there and to his children and grandchildren until the time of the ↑ civil war . The book and television programme encouraged many African-Americans to try to find out more about their own family origins.