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!

I hate to play favorites, but…I can honestly say that Ardenia Brown was by far our most enthusiastic host! Ardenia came to us through a mutual friend and was immediately like family. She has an extensive promotions background and so she was like a one woman African Ancestry PR machine!

Gina and Ardenia

As a proprietor of Butternut Market, Ardenia is part of a group of local entrepreneurs who are changing the way that Bedford-Stuyvesant views itself as a neighborhood. She organized her colleagues at Therapy Wine Bar and House of Art Gallery Brooklyn to bring the We Are Africa Road Tour to Brooklyn.

House of Art Gallery

Butternut Market Tasting

Butternut Market’s tasting also attracted a number of people from the neighborhood to the presentation, which was standing room only. The reveals were quite moving and the good times continued in the gallery and at Therapy Wine Bar. Bed-Stuy has roots from all over!

Angela Terry - Native American Roots!

Richard Beavers - Angolan Roots!

Alexia Billiart - Ghanaian Roots!

Ardenia Brown - Guinea Bissau Roots!

We had a great time in Brooklyn meeting the neighborhood’s architects, artists, young people, genealogists, and entrepreneurs. We were encouraged by the engagement of the youth and the number of families that came out to learn about finding their roots. Thank you Brooklyn!

A Family Affair

Click here for more photos and video from Brooklyn!

We Are Africa 2010 Road Tour – Carla Hall-African Cuisine from ralston smith.

One of the objectives of the We Are Africa Road Tour is to highlight Black organizations, institutions, and businesses along the way. In Baltimore, we were able to celebrate local entrepreneurs Jamyla and Pierre Bennu. Jamyla is the Grand Mixtress of OyinHandmade.com, a natural beauty products company. Pierre is a filmmaker, exittheapple.com, and allowed us to open the evening with this powerful piece on our culture.

We turned the camera on Pierre to get his perspective on the African Ancestry Experience!

We Are Africa 2010 Road Tour – Pierre Bennu from ralston smith.

We’re catching up y’all! Here are some visuals from the Road:

Want to see more video? Click here.

Click on the photo to view more images

The Opening Blessing for the We Are Africa Road Tour 2010

We Are Africa 2010 road tour – kickoff prayer – AfricanAncestry.com from ralston smith on Vimeo.

Rev. Martha Arvey is So Excited to Find Her Roots!

we are africa 2010 road tour – winning a free AfricanAncestry.com DNA test kit from ralston smith on Vimeo.

Drexel Brooks Shares His Baton Rouge – Yoruba Connection

we are africa 2010 road tour_Baton Rouge/Yoruba Connection_AfricanAncestry.com from ralston smith on Vimeo.

Dr. Dorothy Height was a tireless advocate for me. For 76 years, she led, defended, spoke out, represented, stood up, built, marched, loved, organized, and fought so that I would grow up healthy, safe, educated, employed, empowered, and successful. She didn’t just do this for me either. She did all of these things for all girls and women around the world. By clicking on her photo, you can view a photo gallery of her legacy.

Dr. Dorothy Irene Height

Dr. Height received numerous honors and distinctions, including 36 honorary degrees. We were honored with the opportunity to give this iconic woman the gift of her ancestry during the NCNW Black Family Reunion in 2006. She was delighted to learn that she shared ancestry with the Temne people in Sierra Leone. Believe it or not, Sierra Leone was the first African country to which she traveled! You can view her reaction here.

From the Mandinka yell to the Fulani queen strut, discovering your roots inspires a tremendous sense of pride and powerful connection. After more than six years on the front lines of delivering this transformational information, I thought that I had seen every possible type of reaction to finding your family’s roots. People are overwhelmingly happy about their results. But sometimes….the reactions aren’t so positive.

One thing we experience every time we send a batch of results is…the call. The call almost always begins with, “I think you sent me the wrong results”. The call almost always comes from someone who has just received a letter saying that their paternal ancestry is found in Europe. For some reason, probably an emotional one, many people cannot get their heads around the fact that there is a white man in their paternal line. “My father is African American.” “My father is as dark as tar.” These are just two of the many justifications that we get for why there cannot be a white man in their paternal family tree. After about 10 – 20 minutes discussing the behavior of slaveholders and slave traders, the intellectual psyche kicks back in and folks give in to the possibility.

Occasionally we get the call from people who are upset because their results are not Native American. This reaction does not surprise me either. If your family’s oral tradition has told you that your great great grandmother was a full-blooded Cherokee with long straight black hair and a finely shaped nose, and then we find that her maternal roots are African, I can see where you might be disappointed, upset, or maybe just embarrassed.

But what still has me scratching my head is the call I got from a Black woman who was upset because her paternal roots were AFRICAN! She was ashamed to tell her family that their paternal ancestry was African since they had believed for so long that they were descendants of a plantation owner. One possible explanation was that the story got passed down through the generations incorrectly. Questioning the oral tradition would be difficult. Another possible explanation was that the information showing “mulatto” were recorded incorrectly. Questioning the validity of the genealogy research would also be difficult. And yet another possible explanation was that the man who took the test wasn’t actually part of the family line. That was definitely a can of worms that she didn’t dare (nor did she want) to open.

These experiences reflect the power and emotion involved in discovering your roots. While it is difficult for some of us, for most of us the African Ancestry Experience is deeply enriching and exciting for our entire family. Whatever their origin, our roots are an important part of who we are.

We’re in Atlanta for the third year to celebrate with our partner, the National Black Arts Festival. This year’s event is bittersweet for the African Ancestry fam as it marks the last festival for former executive director, Stephanie Hughley. Stephanie is a huge fan of and very important friend to African Ancestry. She helped put us on the map in Atlanta in 2007! We are going to miss her beauty, candor, and energy.

This year’s festival is being held at the Woodruff Arts Center and is full of unique performances, inspiring conversations, fabulous Black art, African films, and so much more. Check out the schedule of events. We’ll be having a special discount on tracing your DNA and finding your roots too so make sure you stop by our booth. And, tell a friend too!

From time to time we get inquiries to speak with people who have taken our test and then traveled to their country of origin. Two weeks ago, a few media outlets called to see if  I’d just happen to know of any of our African Ancestry family members who would be in Ghana while the Obamas are there. Sure! Yeah, right. We have found Ghanaian results for at least 500 – 600 people. There has to be at least one needle in this haystack.

Kalimah Jackson is the needle in that haystack!

I sent emails to our 50 most recent Ghanaian cousins. Not only was she the ONE that had plans to travel to Accra but she was going to be there at the exact same time! This beautiful, artful, and outgoing woman shared her African Ancestry Experience with me in such a way that I knew it was divine intervention.

She traced her family’s maternal ancestry to Ghana in November 2008. When she shared the results with her family as a Christmas present, they were reminded of her older sister’s trip to Ghana many years ago. She called home every day during that visit to say that she was never coming back home to Detroit. The sense of belonging and place that she felt was so strong that she knew that Ghana was her home. Well her sister did come home at the end of the trip and from that day forward, Ghana was a part of her life. Kalimah brought the experience full circle when she told the family that they share genetic ancestry with the Akan in Ghana.

You can see Kalimah “at home” in Ghana on Good Morning America this Saturday morning. She is being interviewed by Ron Claiborne who is covering the Obamas’ visit. You can also check this sistah entrepreneur at her website, http://picnap.com.

Thank you Kalimah for being a part of the African Ancestry family!