[tumblindice]

I’m not certain but pretty sure that in the first ‘Roots’ episode where Kunta & company are being driven, bound in yokes, the slave drivers are dressed in Arab slavers mufti very much like the native east African costume Barry Obama modeled for us.
Remember that outlandish (I. Just. Don’t. Care) outfit he had on, white, crossed in front, some sort of MC Hammer balloon pants and a round pillbox-type hat?
Yeah, Abe Lincoln indeed. More like Africa’s counterpart to Simon Legree and another aspect to our schizophrenic attitudes on race.

[driftless2]

I vaguely recall the first episode. I remember Gary Anderson as one of the slavers and they captured poor Kunta in some sort of net with Anderson gleefully smiling at the capture of his new trophy.

It was only later that I read that the great majority of white slavers never went inland and relied on black chieftains to deliver the slaves to them. But of course, that wouldn't have made as much an interesting "story" to show blacks complicit in the slave trade.