Kunta Kinte Festival Canceled Due To Money Trouble
ANNAPOLIS, Md. (AP) -- The group that produces the annual Kunta Kinte Festival in Annapolis says the event will not be held this year due to budget shortfalls.
The Capital reports the festival depends on sponsorships, grants, volunteers and fees from vendors to present a celebration of African and African-American heritage. It is co-sponsored by the city of Annapolis each year.
The festival is named for Kunta Kinte, the character in Alex Haley's novel "Roots: The Saga of an American Family." He hoped his daughter and those after him would remember and cherish the land and culture he left behind.
The festival was launched more than 25 years ago. It's been held in September in recent years at City Dock, the site where Kunta Kinte and other enslaved Africans arrived in the U.S.
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