Alexander Murray Palmer Haley (August 11, 1921–February 10, 1992) was an American writer. He is best known as the author of Roots: The Saga of an American Family, and of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, the latter of which he wrote in collaboration with Malcolm X.

Early life

Born in Ithaca, New York, in 1921, Haley spent his first five years in Henning, Tennessee in an African American family mixed with Irish and Cherokee ancestry with his 2 younger brothers. Haley was born to Simon Haley and Bertha Palmer.

Many of his books reference his childhood friend Charlie Taylor. Haley's father, Simon Alexander Haley, was a professor of agriculture who had served in World War I after graduating from college. The younger Haley always spoke proudly of his father and the incredible obstacles of racism he had overcome. Alex Haley was first sent off to college at the age of 15. At the age of seventeen he returned home to inform his father of his withdrawal from Alcorn State University. Simon Haley felt that Alex needed discipline and growth and convinced his son to enlist in the military. On May 24, 1939, Alex Haley began his 20-year service with the Coast Guard.

He enlisted as a mess-boy and then became a Petty Officer Third Class in the rate of Mess Attendant, one of the few enlisted designators open to African Americans at that time. It was during his service in the Pacific theater of operations that Haley taught himself the craft of writing stories. It is said that during his enlistment he was often paid by other sailors to write love letters to their girlfriends. He talked of how the greatest enemy he and his crew faced during their long sea voyages wasn't the Japanese but boredom. He collected many rejection slips over an eight-year period before his first story was bought.

After World War II, Haley was able to petition the Coast Guard to allow him to transfer into the field of journalism, and by 1949 he had become a Petty Officer First Class in the rate of Journalist. He later advanced to the rank of Chief Petty Officer and held this grade until his retirement from the Coast Guard in 1959.

Alex Haley's awards and decorations from the Coast Guard include the American Defense Service Medal (with "Sea" clasp), American Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, Coast Guard Good Conduct Medal (with 1 silver and 1 bronze service star), Korean Service Medal, National Defense Service Medal, United Nations Service Medal, and the Coast Guard Expert Marksmanship Medal.

Writing career

After his retirement from the Coast Guard, Haley began his writing career and eventually became a senior editor for Reader's Digest.

Playboy magazine

Haley conducted the first interview for Playboy magazine. The interview, with jazz legend Miles Davis, appeared in the September 1962 issue. In the interview, Davis candidly spoke about his thoughts and feelings on racism and it was that interview that set the tone for what would become a significant part of the magazine. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Playboy Interview with Haley was the longest he ever granted to any publication.

Throughout the 1960s, Haley was responsible for some of the magazine's most notable interviews, including an interview with American Nazi Party leader George Lincoln Rockwell, who agreed to meet with Haley only after Haley, in a phone conversation, assured him that he was not Jewish. Haley exhibited remarkable calm and professionalism despite the handgun Rockwell kept on the table throughout the interview.

Haley also interviewed Cassius Clay, who spoke about changing his name to Muhammad Ali. Other interviews include Jack Ruby's defense attorney Melvin Belli, Sammy Davis, Jr., Jim Brown, Johnny Carson, and Quincy Jones. He completed a memoir of Malcolm X for Playboy six months before Malcolm X died in February 1965. The memoir was published in the July 1965 issue of the magazine.

Malcolm X

One of Haley's most famous interviews was a 1963 interview with Malcolm X for Playboy, which led to their collaboration on the activist's autobiography The Autobiography of Malcolm X, based on interviews conducted shortly before Malcolm's death (and with an epilogue). Published in 1965, the book became a huge success and was later named by Time magazine as one of the ten most important nonfiction books of the 20th century.

Roots

In 1976, Haley published Roots: The Saga of an American Family, a novel based loosely on his family's history, starting with the story of Kunta Kinte, kidnapped in Gambia in 1767 and transported to the Province of Maryland to be sold as a slave.

Haley claimed to be a seventh-generation descendant of Kunta Kinte, and Haley's work on the novel involved ten years of research, intercontinental travel and writing. He went to the village of Juffure, where Kunta Kinteh grew up and which is still in existence, and listened to a tribal historian tell the story of Kinteh's capture.

Haley also traced the records of the ship, The Lord Ligonier, which he said carried his ancestor to America. Genealogists have since disputed Haley's research and conclusions and Haley had to reach an out-of-court settlement with Harold Courlander to end a plagiarism lawsuit.

Haley was briefly a "writer in residence" at Hamilton College in Clinton, New York. He began to write "Roots" there. Many local people remember Haley fondly. He enjoyed spending time at a local bistro "The Savoy" in Rome New York where he listened to the piano player. Today, there is a special table in honor of Haley with a painting of Alex writing "Roots" on a yellow legal tablet.

Haley said the most emotional moment of his life was on September 29, 1967, when he stood at the site in Annapolis, Maryland where his ancestor had arrived 200 years before. Roots was eventually published in 37 languages and Haley won a Special Award for it in 1977 from the Pulitzer Board.

Roots also went on to become a popular television miniseries in 1977. The book and film were both successful, reaching a record-breaking 130 million viewers when it was serialized on television. Roots emphasized that African Americans have a long history and that not all of that history is lost, as many believed. Its popularity sparked an increased public interest in genealogy, as well.

In 1979, ABC aired a sequel miniseries entitled Roots: The Next Generations. The series continued the story of Kunta Kinteh's descendants, concluding with Haley's arrival in Jufureh. Haley was portrayed (at various ages) by future soap opera actor Kristoff St. John, The Jeffersons actor Damon Evans, and Tony Award winner James Earl Jones.

Later years

In the late 1980s, Haley began working on a second historical novel based on another branch of his family, traced through his grandmother Queen—the daughter of a black slave woman and her white master. Haley died in Seattle, Washington of a heart attack before he could complete the story and was buried beside his childhood home in Henning, Tennessee. At his request, it was finished by David Stevens and was published as Alex Haley's Queen; it was subsequently made into a movie in 1993.

Late in his life, Haley acquired a small farm in Norris, Tennessee, adjacent to the Museum of Appalachia, with the intent of making it his home. Subsequent to his death, the property was sold to the Children's Defense Fund (CDF), which calls it the "Alex Haley Farm" and uses it as a national training center and retreat site. An abandoned barn on the farm property was rebuilt as a traditional cantilevered barn, using a design by architect Maya Lin. The building now serves as a library for CDF.In 1999, the U.S. Coast Guard honored Haley by naming the cutter Alex Haley after him.

Haley was also posthumously awarded the Korean War Service Medal from the government of South Korea ten years after his death. This award, created in 1999, did not exist during Haley's lifetime.

Plagiarism and other criticism

Alex Haley researched Roots for ten years; the Roots TV series adaptation aired in 1977. The same year, Haley won a Pulitzer Prize for the book as well as the Spingarn Medal. However, Haley's fame was marred by plagiarism charges in 1978. After a trial, Haley settled out-of-court for $650,000, having been accused of plagiarizing a 100 word segment from The African by Harold Courlander. Haley claimed that the appropriation of Courlander's passages had been unintentional. In 1988 Margaret Walker also sued him, claiming Roots violated the copyright for her novel Jubilee. Her case was dismissed by the court.

Haley has been accused of fictionalizing true stories in both his book Roots and The Autobiography Of Malcolm X. Malcolm X's family and members of The Nation of Islam accused Haley of changing selected parts of his story.

In addition, the veracity of those aspects of Roots which Haley claimed to be true has also been challenged.[6] Although Haley acknowledged the novel was primarily a work of fiction, he did claim that his actual ancestor was Kunta Kinte, an African taken from the village of Jufureh in what is now The Gambia.

According to Haley, Kunta Kinte was sold into slavery where he was given the name Toby and, while in the service of a slavemaster named John Waller, went on to have a daughter named Kizzy, Haley's great-great-great grandmother. Haley also claimed to have identified the specific slave ship and the actual voyage on which Kunta Kinte was transported from Africa to North America in 1767.

However, noted genealogist Elizabeth Shown Mills and the African-Americanist historian Gary B. Mills revisited Haley's research and concluded that those claims of Haley's were not true. According to the Millses, the slave named Toby who was owned by John Waller could be definitively shown to have been in North America as early as 1762. They further said that Toby died years prior to the supposed date of birth of Kizzy.

There have also been suggestions that Kebba Kanji Fofana, the amateur griot in Jufureh, who, during Haley's visit there, confirmed the tale of the disappearance of Kunta Kinte, had been coached to relate such a story.

To date, Haley's work remains a notable exclusion from the Norton Anthology of African-American Literature, despite Haley's status as history's best-selling African-American author. Harvard University professor Dr. Henry Louis Gates, Jr., one of the anthology's general editors, has denied that the controversies surrounding Haley's works are the reason for this exclusion. Nonetheless, Dr. Gates has acknowledged the doubts surrounding Haley's claims about Roots, saying, "Most of us feel it's highly unlikely that Alex actually found the village whence his ancestors sprang. Roots is a work of the imagination rather than strict historical scholarship."

Bakau Lower Basic School, on Friday, organised a musical fund raising show with the famous DJ Lamin Cham, of the Champion Sound system at the Bakau Lower Basic school ground.

The aim of the programme, according to Momodou Njie, deputy headmaster of Bakau Lower Basic School, is to raise funds for the rehabilitation of some of their classroom structures, buy new cupboards for the school, to construct new pit latrines, as well as purchase some learning materials for the school.

Mr Njie also complained the misuse of the school text books during the past years. He added that, the school has lost many text books in the past years, due to lack of store for keeping text books. He revealed that proceeds from such activities could be used to solve some of their constraints.

As part of the show, Afri Chips production Lt, supplied hundreds of parcels of chips to the school for a raffle draw. Each parcel contained a number of the raffle draw of the following valuable items. Motor cycle-5 pieces, walk man-50 pieces, bicycle-10 pieces. Football-400 pieces, telephone-5 pieces, wrist watch-100 pieces, TV game-5 pieces, VCD-10 pieces and 10,000 pieces of small toys.

Mr. Njie revealed that these raffle items are incentives for children, adding that they are useful to the children’s education.

Mrs Lindsay Smith, coordinator of the UK Sponsorship Programme for Sanchaba Sulay Jobe Lower Basic School, and Mr and Mrs Brown, Founder and coordinator of Friends of Sanchaba School (FOSS), on Wednesday visited Sanchaba Sulay Jobe Lower Basic School, as part of their annual visit to the school.

In her welcoming remarks, Isatou Joof-Gagigo, Headmistress of Sanchaba Sulay Jobe Lower Basic School, said Mrs Lindsay Smith was in 2003, sponsoring one student called Awa Bangura in Sanchaba LBS. She added that Mrs Smith later took over the UK Sponsorship Programme from the former coordinator Dr. Howard Bale, and since then, she started corresponding with the school.

Mrs Joof Gagigo revealed that out of the total enrolment of 1,655 students in the school, at least 100 students benefited from the scholarship programme since 2003 to date.

She advised the students to work hard towards their academic performance and thanked the sponsors for their support to the school.

For her part, Mrs Lindsay Smith, coordinator of the UK sponsorship programme, revealed that over 60 students were currently benefiting from the sponsorship programme.

She advised the students to work hard and promised to continue supporting the school.

Mrs Brown, coordinator of the school feeding programme said they were here to purchase rice for the school children’s feeding.

Mrs Brown also revealed that FOSS also supported Sukuta clinic with medication for saving lives.  She advised students to learn very well and always make their books as their best friends.

Lamin K Camara, cluster monitor, for Sanchaba lower basic school and Mafoday Jawneh, chairperson of the parent-teachers association all expressed sincere thanks and appreciation to the sponsors.

There has been much talk about the poor writing and speaking ability of young Gambians – or is it so even among grown ups? Well, in any case, this phenomenon has perpetually been attributed to the low reading culture within the society. This, critics have pointed out, is also as a result of the unavailability of facilities like public libraries. Indeed, as some would say, there are libraries, but not evenly distributed for equal access. And don’t be shocked if you are told that the majority of Gambian students do not know about the existence of the national library, or that they are entitled to its usage.

Have we thought of making a research about its usage among young students? May be this can be an assignment for those concerned. Anyway, the fact remains that the few public libraries in existence are not popular hideouts for students. Although this trend is being challenged by Give Gambia a Future.    

In the year 2007, the people of Bakau had the luck of having run into some philanthropists, Henny and Petter Goedhart. A long standing relationship that started as mere friendship between the two and some young Gambians, ended up with the construction of a near-modern library. Situated around the Serekunda car park in Bakau, the library is said to contain close to 7000 books, being taken care of by a staff of four Gambians. It operates for at least, 24 four hours daily.

The library study centre, formerly Bakau community library, is fast becoming more useful to the local community and some international researchers. Established by Give Gambia a future foundation, a charitable organization based in Holland, the library has the capacity to accommodate more than 8000 books.

Speaking to this reporter, Henny Goedhart, president of the foundation, said that her foundation have a great lot in store for the people of Bakau and the Gambia in general. She revealed that already a number of computers with internet service had been secured, and that the place was equipped with security camera, among others. According to her, due to high demand by the community, her foundation intends to lunch a search for African books, which, she believes, would better serve the reading need of the students.

Malang Fatty is one of the staff of the library. And according to him, the culture of reading in Bakau is taking a good shape. He pointed out that “contrary to what is often said about the reading culture of Gambians, I see great changes in the youth of school going age.” He believes that the low reading habit has more to do with unavailability of facilities than lack of interest.

A finalist at the University of the Gambia, Mr Fatty is however taken aback by the fact that his colleagues to do not make use of the library, which he said have a lot in store for students of almost all the departments at the University of The Gambia. “Probably some of them are not aware of its existence”, he concludes.

Mandinaba community library (MCL), under Mandinaba youth and sport committee’ s “Nafaa” for all initiative, recently distributed over one thousand, five hundred books of different educational disciplines to ten schools in Western Region.The books were donated to Mandinaba youth and sport committee by donors in the United States through Wings of the Dawn international institute for children, based in the US.

This organisation has a keen interest in the advancement of education and instilling of excellent reading habits in African students, thus they devote themselves to the shipment of books and school supplies to African countries.

In 2006, wings of the dawn signed a memorandum of understanding with mandinaba youth and sport committee for the implementation of a D5 million project called: “Nafaa” for all initiative.

Speaking during the distribution ceremony, Kawsu Sanno, chairperson of Mandinaba youth and sport committee emphasised the need for collaborative efforts for the achievement of advance education in The Gambia. Mr Sanno further noted that the distributed books were very vital to the students, adding that they included books of different educational levels.

He called on students to thrive hard and make the maximum utilization of the library. He noted that Mandinaba community library is the first phase of “Nafaa” for all initiative project, and added that the library was today satisfying students from the village and its environs, in the area of reading and research. He urged the principals and managements of the beneficiary schools to make the best use of the books.

Momodou Samateh, principal of Kinderdorf Bottrop Technical Senior and junior secondary school in Brikama, noted that education was like a river with infinite capacity. Mr Samateh noted that in this twenty first century, students have a lot of opportunities to be educated even where as one does not attend classes.

He thanked Mandinaba youth and sport committee for their goodwill gesture and urged the students to close ranks for their own development.

Lesly Copeland, alias Fatou Jammeh, a peace corps volunteer who is posted in Mandinaba, one of the founders of “Nafaa” for all project, reiterated that the improvement of excellent education in any nation was a sign of hope and expectation. She noted that “Nafaa” for all initiative projects would continue to complement the Gambia government’s efforts in the attainment of vision 2020 and the millennium development goals.

Ousman bah, representative of wings of the dawn in the Gambia and secretary of “Nafaa” for all initiative projects, expressed overwhelming happiness for the distribution of the books. Mr Bah expounded that it was the fervent hope of the donors that the books would yield immeasurable impacts in the education of the students of the beneficiary schools. He urged the students to be steadfast.

Other speakers included the representative of the principal of Brikama Upper Basic School, principal of Faraba Banta basic cycle school, Pirang Basic Cycle school, Kuloro lower basic school, among others.

In an unprecedented attempt to provide, replenish and activate the potent impetus for authentic Islamic scholarly research, intellectual and scientific learning in The Gambia, the Al Atharee Association of The Gambia last Thursday opened a unique Islamic Reference Library in the village of Kartong, Kombo South.

The association is a registered charity involved in Islamic education, Dawah and propagation.

Speaking on the occasion, Abdur Rahman La-Touche, Director of the association, revealed that their motto is ‘Action upon the certain knowledge, with firm intention to seek the pleasure of Allah alone’. He thanked all those who contributed to the implementation of the project. “We hope and pray that this Islamic reference library is not only useful for readers among Gambian people alive today, but also for generations yet to born” he said.

Mr. La-Touche is a British national born in the Caribbean and now resident in The Gambia. He also reveled to journalists that the project cost about seven hundred thousand Dalasis.

For his part, Ismaila Sambou, Secretary of State for Local Government, Lands and Religious Affairs applauded the initiative. He encouraged people to make the best use of the facility.

Madam Mariam Downewlan La-Touche, wife of Mr. La-Touche who is also a librarian, informed reporters that the reference library would strengthen the knowledge of Allah and Prophet (SAW).

The reference library said to be the first of its kind in the country and is located next to Masjid al-gurabaa. It has over two thousand different authentic books including meaning of Quran in English, Tafseer (explanation of Quran), Ahadith, Fiqh, Tawhid, Aqeeda (correct belief) Eemaan (action upon belief) and Islamic dictionaries.

Several dignitaries including the Western Region Governor Abdou Badgie and prominent Islamic scholars attended the event.

Meanwhile, at end of the ceremony, this reporter managed to get the opinion of the President of Supreme Islamic Council Alhaji Banding Drammeh. This is what he had to say; “ The importance of this facility cannot be over emphasised as it has both Arabic and English sections”. He noted that people couldn’t worship Allah without knowing him and that the reference library would enable people know more about Allah. He encouraged other Islamic associations in the country to emulate the Al Atharee Association of The Gambia.