Gambia's race to save its 'Roots' on Kunta Kinteh island As the rebel slave who defied his captors, Kunta Kinte, immortalised in print and on screen in "Roots", put The Gambia on the map for historical tourism. But the island where he and other west Africans faced the horrors of being chained, branded and separated before leaving their homeland forever, is under threat from sea erosion and neglect.