A Desire for Spatio-Cultural Roots in Haley's Roots

Abstract

The African characters in Alex Haley’s Roots, while living an ignoble life in different parts of America, undergo an acute sense of alienation and the trauma of dislocation and exhibit a strong desire to grasp their long lost cultural roots that lie in their homeland. Living in the pool of suffering, pain and estrangement, they get nostalgic about their own past, culture, and land. At the same time, they, along with other exiled Africans, try to adapt the dominant white culture as well as language to achieve an appropriate position there. Despite their attempts to balance themselves between home and abroad, they fail to form a distinct identity in the multicultural milieu of Africa and America. The struggle they undertake for their identity and security of life turns out to be rather disturbing. These characters, living in cultural-in-betweenness, can neither adjust themselves in new culture nor relate themselves with their aboriginal culture except in imagination and reminiscence.