Kunta performs a special ritual every day before dawn. He has done this for years, and it has caused everyone to joke that Kunta can see in the dark because he gets up so early. He awakens, walks to the barn, and in the privacy among the hay bales, Kunta Kinte turns to the East and prays to Allah. By the time Kunta feeds the horses and returns, Kizzy is fed, dressed, and ready to work for the day.

Kunta begins to notice a field hand slave named Noah who has distinct features from the Jaloff tribe. Noah is not much older than Kizzy and reminds Kunta of himself. Noah says little but sees all. Kunta often notices Noah watching Kizzy, especially when Kizzy and Missy Anne are playing together. Kunta begins to catch Noah’s eye sometimes as they spy on Kizzy. Kunta believes they have the same negative thoughts about slave children being friends with white toubob children. At first, Kunta is surprised that Noah and Kizzy are not friends, but Kunta understands too that house slaves and field slaves are not usually friends.

Kunta becomes “resigned to sharing his Kizzy” with his master and Missy Anne. Kunta tries not to dwell upon what Kizzy does all day up in the big house. Kunta waits for Sundays after church when he gets to drive Kizzy back to the plantation in the buggy and then take long walks in the evenings together alone. They often pack a picnic, and sometimes Kizzy recites nursery rhymes that Missy Anne teaches Kizzy. Kunta then responds by telling Kizzy one of the many stories that old Nyo Boto would tell back in Juffare. One day, Kunta marvels at how odd Nyo Boto looked with her bald head, toothless grin, and biting tongue. Kunta tells Kizzy that Nyo Boto had two children who were stolen away in a battle between tribes. Suddenly Kunta stops. He realizes that this is just what happened to Bell. Kunta desperately wants to tell Kizzy about those two children of Bell’s (Kizzy’s half-sisters), but he knows the revelation would only cause hurt and sadness.

Suddenly, Kunta begins graphically recounting the horrors of the slave ship. He describes how they were stripped of everything: their clothes, their names, their dignity. Then Kunta tells Kizzy something he has wanted to say since the day she was born:

Dem like you gits borned here don’t even know who dey is! But you jes’ much Kinte as I is! Don’t never fo’git dat!

Kunta then picks up a stick and begins drawing letters in Arabic in the dirt. He has written his own name, Kunta Kinte, in Arabic. Then he draws Kizzy’s name in the same language. Kizzy excitedly asks if she could learn to write as well. Kunta says that women are never supposed to learn to read or write in Africa. Even though Kizzy does not understand the reasoning behind her father's decision, she is elated when he allows her to drop a pebble into Kunta’s gourd to show that he is a month older.