Stories and music were essential to African culture and to the African American culture forcibly transplanted into the New World. This recording with a special narration by "Roots" author Alex Haley, brings together the stories of these uprooted Africans and some of their music.

African stories contained the genealogy and cultural roots of individual black African communities. On this recording, we focus on the communities south of the Sahara Desert. Here the domestication of the land was a preeminent concern. Animal husbandry, the growing of crops, and struggling with a desolate and sometimes violent climate were a constant battle, lost or won from year to year. Famine was a reality, and food production an essential skill that literally determined the survival of most communities. The treachery of the climate, however, was balanced by its beauty. From tropical rain forests to beautiful teeming jungles, all that was dangerous was also extremely beautiful and exotic. Out of this diverse area came the ingredients for stories that illuminate the vastness of time and place and culture.