Kunta Kinteh Island: "Coming Home Without Shackles" chronicles the pride, strength and journey of the most celebrated captive African, Kunta Kinteh. The saga of Kunta Kinteh's life was characterized and featured in an American made-for-TV movie and book entitled Roots, created by his descendent Alex Haley. The book and film highlighted the life of an African warrior-in-training who was enslaved and brought to the New World, the Americas, during the West African Slave Trade
During this forced exodus, Kunta Kinteh was captured and transported to James Island where he was held captive for 15 days before being shipped as cargo to the Americas.  Recently, Alhaji Dr. Yahya Abdul-Aziz Jemus Junkung Jammeh, President of the Republic of The Gambia, reclaimed and renamed the old British Fortress from James Island to KUNTA KINTEH ISLAND to honor his legacy. Although Kunta Kinteh was captured, shackled and abducted from his homeland, his legacy returns home to Jufferreh, The Gambia, West Africa, without shackles.
Filmmaker, Elvin Ross, makes his debut as writer and director for this epic documentary feature. Elvin and his production company, e. ross studios, captured the spirit and essence of the Gambian people during the Roots Festival in February 2011 whereby the island is renamed. The ruins of the fortress, which were restored through grants from both the Netherlands and the USA, serve as a backdrop to this film. As a means of introducing the subject matter to a younger audience, veteran actor Ben Vereen offers a dramatic rendering of a grandfather re-telling his family's history to his young grandson.
 Vereen brilliantly introduces a past, which includes present-day interviews with Kinteh family members that still reside in Juffureh. This documentary highlights the pride of a people that were so strong that they were known as some of the greatest hunters and warriors on the continent.
This movie focuses on the lessons taught by Kunta Kinteh's grandmother, Yaisa, which rang as truths in his spirit, freeing his mind even when he lost his physical freedom.
Because of the lessons he learned, today's African American may return to the Mother Land with heads held high, knowing that they can survive any obstacle and flourish in any environment as long as they stay true to their inner convictions.
Jermaine Jackson in The Film "Kunta Kinteh Island"
Kunta Kinteh Island, formerly James Island, is an island in the Gambia River, 30 km from the river mouth and near Juffureh in the country of the Gambia. Fort James is located on the island. It is less than two miles from Albreda on the river's northern bank.
The first European visitors were Portuguese and they named it St. Andrews Island. The first European settlers on the island came from Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, a vassal state of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, who also had other colonial possessions in the area, though the English Crown had previously granted the island to two separate companies in 1588 and 1618. In 1651, the settlers built a fort that they named Jacob Fort after Jacob Kettler, the Duke of Courland, and used it as a trade base. The Dutch briefly held the fort from 1659 until the English captured it in 1661; the Dutch formally ceded the fort to the English in 1664.
In 1695, the French captured Fort James after a battle with English sailors. In 1702, Fort James was definitively under British control. The fort was destroyed and rebuilt several times in this period, both in conflicts between the English and French and by pirates. On 13 June 1750 the Company of Merchants Trading in Africa assumed the administration of the Gambia. Between 1758 - 1779, the Gambia was part of British Senegambia.
The Six-Gun Battery (1816) and Fort Bullen (1826), now included in the James Island UNESCO World Heritage Site and located on both sides of the mouth of the River Gambia, were built with the specific intent of thwarting the slave trade once it had become illegal in the British Empire after the passing of the Slave Trade Act in 1807. These sites along with the island itself were abandoned in 1870.
On 6 February 2011 it was renamed Kunta Kinteh Island to give the island a Gambian name.
As an important historical site in the West Africanslave trade, it is now listed as a UNESCOWorld Heritage Site, together with related sites including Albreda, Juffureh and Fort Bullen. James Island is suffering heavy erosion, and is now approximately 1/6 of the size during the time when the fort was active. Ruins of several of the British administrative buildings (including a single cell, apparently used to house the most troublesome captives), a small jetty and a number of skeletalbaobab trees remain. The ruins have been stabilised and protected by a capping. Because the island is low-lying, during high tide and storms sometimes waves will beat against some of the surviving structures.
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