Long before I helped to launch The Africa Channel cable network back in 2005, I was called, “Miss Africa,” by so many people, because of my love, work, and devotion to the continent. Then, and now, I’m constantly asked about all things Africa. The most common question: WHAT IS — OR WHO IS — THE “AFRICAN DIASPORA?”

Well, aside from being one of the most overly-used buzz phrases of the decade, “diaspora” literally means, “scattered.” So, the generally accepted definition of “African Diaspora,” (pronounced: dye / Ÿass / Ÿ per / Ÿ uh) – in case you were wondering, refers to those Africans living outside of Africa – over 30 million of them living abroad, with 10 million of them living mostly in North America and Europe, according to the 2012 Migration Policy Institute report.

But, depending on whom you ask, the term “African Diaspora” often has expanded meaning.

The African Union (AU) concurs that, “The African Diaspora consists of peoples of African origin living outside the continent [of Africa], irrespective of their citizenship and nationality,” then adds: “and who are willing to contribute to the development of the continent and the building of the African Union.” By this definition, to simply be descended from Africa isn’t enough; to earn the label of Diasporan, one must be a donor who contributes to the estimated $60 billion US dollars that are annually sent back to Africa through remittances from the Diaspora.

Many African Americans believe that the term “African Diaspora” is based not solely on Africans born in Africa who immigrate to other lands but based on any descendant of Africans who were enslaved (mostly from West and Central Africa) as a result of the Atlantic slave trade, and brought to the Americas and elsewhere. In this context, it doesn’t matter if you are a first, second, third of fourth generation African. If your ancestor is from Africa and you are living outside of Africa, then you are an African living in the Diaspora.

According to a 2013 Brookings Institution’s Africa Foresight Report, which includes in its account of 30.6 million African Diasporans today — nearly half of them are migrants living within Africa.

Then there are my native born African friends and colleagues who immigrated outside of Africa to other locations who have two additional beliefs: (1) that there are several categories of Diasporans: those who leave Africa and don’t look back; those who don’t want to discuss Africa; those who choose to live abroad forever and never look back or reach out; and those who are first generation immigrants who are emotionally attached to Africa and very passionate about what they can give back, and (2) some believe that for all intents and purposes, the term “African Diaspora” pertains to anyone with African blood in them, regardless of skin color.

Uhm… wouldn’t that be everyone – in the world?

So, which theory do you subscribe to? I’d love to hear your thoughts on this topic. Shoot me a note at sneal@africanancestry.com and let’s get a dialogue going.

And if you haven’t traced your roots to a modern day country and ethnic group in Africa, you need to do it – it’s life changing! Don’t be fooled — www.africanancestry.com is the only company that can use your DNA to trace your lineage to a specific modern day country and ethnic group in Africa when African ancestry is found. Check it out!

Until then…
Amani (peace)

How many times have you heard someone say – or maybe you’ve even said yourself, “I’m half Cherokee;” “I’m three-quarters Navajo on my mother’s side;” “I got Indian blood in me?”  When African Americans make these claims, I wonder what the assertions are based on? Is it that high cheekbones run in their family? Was great great Big Momma’s black hair so long she could sit on it?  Or is the belief that it’s more exotic to be descended from potential Indian chiefdom rather than African royalty?

I became interested in this topic most recently when in my capacity as an advisory board member for www.africanancestry.com, I was asked to reveal the DNA test results of several African American notables living in Los Angeles. In advance of the invitation-only ceremony, I learned that the DNA findings for one, linked them to Native American lineage.

Hearing the news, the organizer of the event panicked. Gina Paige, president and co-founder of www.africanancestry.com offered comfort, assuring us that “no one is ever disappointed by Native American results.”

Really?

Not doubting Gina, but curious to learn more, I conducted my own unofficial poll, quizzing people who had taken the DNA tests.  Those whose results came back as Native American were not only ecstatic with the news as Gina Paige had forecast, but a number of people have been disappointed that Native American lineage was not found, but was expected.

It’s no wonder. According to several historians, most African Americans today who believe they are of Native American heritage are misled.  Dr. Rick Kittles, a geneticist and co-founder of www.africanancestry.com who has performed DNA testing on over 30,000 African Americans offers, “If you ask ten African-Americans if they have Native American ancestry, eight of them will say ‘yes,’ but when we actually test them, it’s less than 10 percent.”

Interestingly, as far back as the 1920s, Dr. Carter Woodson (known as the father of Black History) posited that a third of most African Americans have Indian blood. Research since DNA genetic testing confirms that 5% of all African Americans have at least 12.5% Native American ancestry, equivalent to a great grandparent.

So, what about our storied legends who over the years have claimed dual (Native American and African) lineage:  Frederick Douglass, Crispus Attucks, and poet laureate Langston Hughes, who supposedly traced his lineage back to Pocahontas?   Were they misled?

(top row) from left to right: Frederick Douglass, Crispus Attucks, Langston Hughes. (bottom row) Pocahontas.

And what about you?

If you’ve always believed that you have Native American roots, you may want to take a DNA test to confirm your lineage.  The results may surprise you.

Parenthetically, the person I revealed at the event in Los Angeles who was of Native American heritage on her mother’s line was not surprised.  She’s proud of the legacy but anxious to now trace her paternal line and hopefully pinpoint her African roots.

If you’ve taken the test and found that you were of Native American lineage, I’d love to know your thoughts on this topic.  Drop me a line at sneal@africanancestry.com.  And if you haven’t yet traced your roots, there’s no time like the present.  Visit www.africanancestry.com to learn how. Until then…

Amani (peace)

I’m often asked why more of our lineages aren’t traced to Southern or Eastern Africa?  Evidently, there are a lot of folks who want to be from South Africa, Ethiopia or even Kenya.  Well, the chances of that are pretty slim.  So, why is that?

First of all, to be clear, it’s not because www.africanancestry.com doesn’t have the database to pinpoint ancestry to those regions.  On the contrary, I can assure you that the www.africanancestry.com  database is still the best there is out there for tracing lineages not just to Africa, but to a specific modern day country and ethnic group, when African ancestry is found.  Most companies can only tell you what continent you originated from, but not what country.  But, AfricanAncestry.com has 35 African countries in its exclusive database, including Central and East Africa.  They compare an individuals’ genetic sequence against 25,000 indigenous African samples and successfully determine ancestry over 99% of the time for both maternal and paternal lineages.  They find identical matches for approximately 85% of the people they test. For the remaining people, they find closely related lineages with greater than 95% confidence.

They don’t report much ancestry outside of West Africa because frankly the majority of lineages are in fact traced to modern day West Africa.

I’m not an authority on the subject, so I can’t offer a definitive answer as to why so many results are from this region, but keep in mind that the  Atlantic Slave Trade resulted in the enslavement of mostly West Africans by Europeans. Below, are a few (estimated) statistics I excerpted from Hugh Thomas’ fascinating book, “The Slave Trade,” that are worth noting:

Here are a few other interesting stats:

I hope this info helps.  As usual, I welcome your comments!  Shoot me an email at sneal@africanancestry.com .

And if you want to see the names of others who share your African lineage – visit the “Wall of Return” at www.africanancestry.com.  Until then…

Amani (peace)

I remember all too well the day in 1988 when Reverend Jesse Jackson urged us American black folks to drop the term “black” and begin to call ourselves, “African American.”  In a passionate speech he declared that, “Germans in America are called German Americans. Chinese are called Chinese Americans. Therefore we are African Americans. It is important that we emphasize our culture and heritage. Otherwise we are trapped in a vacuum without a sense of roots or a sense of destiny.”

Personally, I prefer the term “black,” but that doesn’t mean I’m not proud of my African heritage. Nearly 30 years ago, I was in an acting workshop with a room full of white Americans.  We were asked to identify our lineage.  As we went around the room everyone proudly stated from where they were descended:  Germany, Italy, Ireland, Poland, and Switzerland.  When it was my turn, the furthest back I could claim was Alabama.  Sure, I knew that I had African roots, but saying “Africa” wasn’t enough.  I vowed then, that I would one day trace my roots not just to Africa, but to a specific country and ethnic group.  And so I did!  Like Rev. Jackson, I too am of Sierra Leone lineage, as well as Liberia.

Neal with Rev. Jackson in Tanzania, Africa

Just as Rev. Jackson urged us to rediscover our ties to Africa; 24 years later, the African Union will host its first Global African Diaspora Summit on May 25^th, and will undoubtedly explore whether Africans in the Diaspora really want closer ties to Africa?  Following that theme, I decided to reach out to members of the www.AfricanAncestry.com family to see why they personally chose to seek closer ties to Africa.  Here’s what some had to say:

Anonymous (DC):   Thank you, Shirley for sharing the story of how we started to call ourselves African American.   I never knew that.  And by the way, I love your blogs! 

Tracing my roots was the best decision I ever made.  I was adopted and never knew my real parents.  My adoptive parents separated when I was young, then my adoptive father died two years later.  It wasn’t until I traced my roots back to Africa and then visited there that I had a real sense of family and being “African American.” I had no idea the people there would accept me the way they did.  In fact, they all called me “cousin,” which I’m told is how a lot of Africans refer to us.  I urge people to trace their roots.  It’s good to know where you come from and to have family!

Charlene (Detroit):    I have been looking at my family’s history through genealogy. At some point there are no more answers to be found and that is disappointing. When I learned of DNA connections for persons, I became interested and was so pleased to learn that I had connections to a specific location in Africa, not just African American but Cameroon American or Camerican. So much for disappointment. I still seek answers to my family’s history but I have latched onto my Cameroonian heritage because having visited there and found the people to be so welcoming, I know there is a place there for me and I feel that connection. I will continue to make connections and seek answers but I am grateful to Cameroon, its government officials and its citizens for welcoming me with open arms and giving me a place to which I can feel a part of. Now if I can fill in the gap between Cameroon and Georgia, how wonderful that would be!

Thanks ladies for sharing!  I’ll post more stories in the weeks to come.  If you’d like to share any of your stories of discovery, drop me a line at (sneal@africanancestry.com).  Until next time…

Amani (peace)

For this week’s www.AfricanAncestry.com blog, I wanted to share some little known facts about the Motherland for those of you who recently traced your roots, and have all of this excitement and passion about the continent built up inside.

While doing my research though, I was disappointed to find that most of the positive “trivia,” was all too familiar.  It’s like when during Black History Month you hear about the same 10 or 12 people who made a difference, and rarely hear about any other achievers.

Neal posing with "Lucy Bones" at The Ethiopian National Museum in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

DID YOU KNOW THAT…

• Africans are some of the most educated immigrants in the world, and one of the most educated men in the world is Zimbabwean President, Robert Mugabe who holds seven degrees – two of them are Master’s degrees.
• Eighteen people from Africa have been awarded the Nobel Prize.  Coincidentally, two of them have houses on Vilakazi Street in Soweto, South Africa:  Nelson Mandela, and Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
• While there are between 2,000 and 3,000 languages spoken in Africa, with possibly as many as 8,000 dialects, Somalia is the only country in the world where all citizens speak one language, Somali.
• Even though diamonds are abundant in Sierra Leone, the largest diamond in the world was the Cullinan, found in a mine near Pretoria, South Africa in 1905.  It weighed 3,106.75 carats uncut.  In fact, half the world’s diamonds come from southern and central Africa.
• The Nile River is the longest river in Africa and in the world.  It’s over 4,000 miles long. And while it’s often associated with Egypt, it actually touches Ethiopia, the DRC, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda, Burundi and Sudan, as well as Egypt.  This is a picture I took of it from my recent trip to Uganda.

The Nile River, photographed in Uganda

Now that you’ve traced your lineage to Africa and are starting to do your own research, let me know (sneal@africanancestry.com) if you uncover any additional little known facts about our homeland.  I’d love to share them here.  Until next time…

Amani (peace)

After tracing my roots to the Motherland, specifically Sierra Leone (Mende) and Liberia (Kru), I had two immediate goals: repatriation and investment.  I’ve done the former; I’m working on the latter; and I recently met a www.africanancestry.com family member who’d done both!   Once he traced his maternal roots to the Ga Adangbe peoples of Ghana, Brooklyn native, Brian Williams, made the trek to the capital city of Accra in 2005, and today is a proud owner of Ghana’s Sanaa Hotel!

The Sanaa (which means “treasure”) Hotel is wholly owned by people of the Diaspora and is located a stone’s throw from Cape Coast Slave Castle and just minutes from Elmina Castle.

After learning of his lineage, Brian set out on a pilgrimage to Ghana’s capital city, Accra.  According to Brian, “I saw an elder there who looked identical to my aunt who raised me.  She was in a marketplace.  My Guide introduced me to her and she said I looked like her father who was sent to the states and never came back.  After she heard I was there in search of my ancestry, she told me her brother was a Paramount Chief in a place called Kokrobite (a small fishing village west of Accra).   So, I went there and sat before a group of elders.  A Linguist asked questions.  Then, they decided I was part of their group – without even looking at my DNA documents, they knew. They said, ‘you’ve been accepted.’ Then, they did a traditional naming ceremony there at the Chief’s house.”

On a return visit in September 2010, Brian was enstooled as Chief Nii Arde Anum 1, the “Noa Mantse” or Development Chief of three Ghanaian villages.

 Center:  Brian Williams aka Chief Noa Mantse

Still living in the U.S, Brian makes the trek to Ghana every 3-4 months to fulfill his chiefly duties of building up visibility of the villages and aggregating education supplies.  He also heads up security at his hotel and elsewhere in the country.  A security specialist and Private Investigator by trade, Brian trains security professionals throughout Ghana, including the former President’s secret service team.

Brian is just a handful of African Americans who’ve invested in Africa once tracing their roots there.  If you’ve traced your roots to Africa and have an interesting story to tell, shoot me an email at sneal@africanancestry.com, I’d love to share it here.   Until next time…

Amani (peace)!

AfricanAncestry.com Fast Fact:

Interested in investing in Africa?  It does boast of some of the world’s fastest-growing economies. 

“Roots” made such an impression on me, that I look forward on this 35^th Anniversary of the mini-series to hear how it inspired you!   www.africanancestry.com  family member, Paula Whatley Matabane (Washington DC) shares that she had high praise for the series but for one issue:

“I’m Southern, and when I heard the dialogue, I knew no one had coached the actors.  It irritated me to no end.  If they were Shakespearian actors they’d have to learn the Elizabethian language. So why didn’t these actors have a dialogue coach?  Also, in the book, Kunte doesn’t speak English for a long time. This was a powerful way of preserving his true identity and culture. That power was lost in the TV series by ignoring Kunte’s non-English period and the inauthentic dialogue.”

Despite Paula’s issues with the dialogue, she still applauds the series for the audience it drew, and she’s been deeply rooted – pardon the pun – in chasing her roots ever since.  “I come from a family of griots,” she explained.  In fact, Paula’s maternal grandmother actually wrote her own autobiography in 1948.  “My family shared stories from generation to generation because we believe that you don’t know where you’re going until you know where you’ve been.”  She traced her father’s line as far back as the 1700s, and she knows that her ancestors ended up on a plantation in Russell County, Alabama.

Paula’s great, great grandparents, Cornelia & David Silas

But Paula wanted to know more!  Relying on DNA, she embarked on a search with a company that could trace her roots to West Africa. That still wasn’t enough for her! Then, thanks to the www.africanancestry.com  database, she was able to trace her maternal line to the Mende people living in Sierra Leone today, and the Temne of Guinea-Bissau. Paula shares, “When I first got the results, I was ecstatic!  Ironically, long before DNA testing, a Creole (Krio) sister from Sierra Leone became my best friend and was present in the delivery room when my daughter was born in 1977 – yes, the same year “Roots” premiered. Learning about my Mende roots made me wonder if this sister was sent by the Mende and Temne ancestresses to look after me.” Hey, you never know, my Mende cuz! Thanks for sharing, Paula!

Now it’s your turn… On this 35^th Anniversary of “Roots,” let us know (sneal@africanancestry.com) if and how the series influenced you to trace your roots, and give us your feedback on the mini-series itself. Look for comments from some of the stars of “Roots” who traced their own roots in my future blogs. Until then… Amani (peace)!

Exactly 35 years ago, the TV mini-series Roots caught the world’s attention and made us black folks start thinking about tracing our roots – not just back two or three generations to life on a Southern plantation, but back to Africa, just as Pulitzer Prize winning author Alex Haley did. I was pretty young back then when Roots premiered on TV… okay, I was in college. But it seems like only a few years ago – not 35, that families were glued to their TV sets for eight consecutive nights to watch the twelve hour mini-series, and then naming their newborns Kunte, Kizzy, and even Chicken George. What were they thinking?!

I was one of the 80-100 million viewers who watched TV ratings history in the making, and vowed to one day visit Africa in search of my own family’s roots. 23 years later, I visited The Gambia, West Africa, and the Juffureh Village that was home to Kunte Kinte until he was captured by slave hunters. I was welcomed in Juffureh with open arms by the Chief of the village and one of Haley’s oldest living ancestors. I recall wondering if these women were also my ancestors. At the time, I had the passion but not the wherewithal to embark on the same daunting 12 year quest as Haley’s, to trace my roots. But, then along came DNA and www.africanancestry.com!

Today, through advances in DNA testing, tracing our lineage to Africa has never been easier. I did it! And so did Questlove, Q-Tip, India.Arie, Quincy Jones, Common, Bishop T.D. Jakes, Oprah Winfrey, Maya Angelou, Chris Rock, Spike Lee, and other celebrities, plus, whole congregations at churches, students, athletes, politicians, and even a 99 year old grandmother. Actors LeVar Burton and Louis Gossett, Jr., who respectively played the Kunte Kinte and Fiddler characters from the Roots mini-series, also traced their ancestries back to Africa: Gossett, to Sierra Leone and Liberia; Burton, to Nigeria.

My results arrived in about 5 weeks, on the same day that then Senator Barack Obama accepted the nomination as President. I remember running to my room to put on my “Hope & Change” T-shirt before I opened the large envelope bearing my results. It felt so appropriate to discover my roots the same night we would elect the first African American president – who of course, happens to be of African descent.

I videotaped myself opening the envelope that night. With a sense of pride, I read that my maternal (mother’s line) ancestry had been traced to the Mende people of Southern Sierra Leone and the Kru of Liberia. Since this discovery, I’ve visited Sierra Leone. The experience was amazing (I’ll save that story for another blog), and I look forward to visiting Liberia in the very near future.

But enough about me… through this weekly Blog, I want to tell YOUR story! If you are an African Ancestry family member, contact me Shirley Neal at: sneal@africanancestry.com to share your experience. And if you haven’t taken the test yet what are you waiting for? Go ahead and take it! Now is the perfect time. It costs less during Black History Month 2012.

As for this Blog… visit us next week and every week for a new “We Are Africa” story. It could very well be YOURS!