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!

Black History Month is coming! We are excited to partner with The Africa Channel for a unique promotion this February. Stay tuned!

Click inside frame to view trailer.

On December 26, 2010, over 50 African Ancestry family members traveled to Cameroon as part of the first ever, Ancestry Reconnection Program. The ARK Jammers Connection, an international group of musicians and music lovers who perform Acts of Random Kindness, sponsored this journey for DNA descendants of Cameroon to return to their country of origin.

There is no way to describe the impact of the 10-day experience in a single blog post. So, throughout the month, we will be sharing reflections of the trip here and on facebook.

One of the highlights for me was our visit to the primary school, Cite des Enfance in the city of Kribi. We were greeted by the 2-year old students who sang the national anthem with everything that they had.

The program that followed was a combination of poems, recitations, singing, and dancing. These primary school students are amazing. Their program was in English and French.

One of the members of our delegation, Sharon Dennis Wyeth, is a highly acclaimed children’s book author. She read her book, “Something Beautiful”, to the students and later donated 100 copies to the school.

But let me tell you….the dancing stole the show! As one member of our group put it, we are born with rhythm. It is in our DNA. Check out this showstopper.

dancing boy at school – kribi, cameroon from ralston smith on Vimeo.

Each of us was invited to leave an inspirational message for the students and plant a tree with two students to leave a legacy of something beautiful from their Cameroonian American brothers and sisters.

The entire ceremony was humbling and deeply moving.

View more photos of our experience at Cite des Enfance on our Flickr page!

AFRICANANCESTRY.COM UNLOCKS ANCESTRAL ROOTS OF DR. MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. AND MARCUS GARVEY USING DNA AND THEIR LIVING DESCENDENTS

Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Guinea-Bissau identified as present-day countries of origin for Descendents of Renown Leaders

WASHINGTON, DC (September 2010) – For the children of civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and social justice icon Marcus Garvey, DNA roots tracing has confirmed they have something genetically in common:  Both their paternal ancestries trace to Europe; and both their maternal ancestries connect them directly to Africa. AfricanAncestry.com, the pioneers of DNA-based ancestry tracing for African Americans, recently revealed the paternal roots of King and Garvey through their sons — Martin Luther King III and Dr. Julius Garvey respectively – during a special DNA Reveal Dinner hosted by the Leon H. Sullivan Foundation’s African Policy Summit in Atlanta on Sept. 26.

For the King Family, AfricanAncestry.com’s results complement the paper-trail research they’ve done on Dr. King’s paternal side, which traces to Ireland.  Martin Luther King III’s test also revealed his mother’s line, the late Coretta Scott King, who it was determined shares ancestry with the Mende people of Sierra Leone.

“One test can reveal the lineage of an entire family,” said Gina Paige, co-founder and president of African Ancestry. “As an African American, I’m personally proud and passionate about all the families we’ve been able to help since our inception several years ago.  It is of the highest professional honor that we’ve contributed to history by tracing the ancestries of these iconic families. This is truly a milestone for us.”

While Dr. Garvey’s paternal lineage traced to Portugal and Spain in Europe, his maternal line traced to present-day Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone and Senegal.  “It is actually not uncommon for paternal lineages of African Americans to trace to Europe due to the number of white male slave owners fathering children with enslaved African women,” said Dr. Rick Kittles, co-founder and Scientific Director for African Ancestry.

In addition to the Kings and Garveys, African Ancestry.com revealed the roots of Atlanta Mayor Kasim Reed, who shares ancestry with the Igbo people of Nigeria, and Dr. Carlton Brown, president of Clark Atlanta University, who shares ancestry with the Yoruba and Fulani people of Nigeria.

Contacts:

Nichole D. Taylor

ntaylor@africanancestry.com

We made it! We started in New Orleans and ended up in Boston. Woo hoo!

Road Scholar has partnered with us on several events and so we were glad to be on their turf this time and to get to associate faces with emails. Kathy Taylor, Associate Vice President of Road Scholar, is a driving force behind engaging programming that reflects the African American experience.

Kathy introduces the Road Tour

The Boston group was unique in comparison to the rest of the Tour. We had a roomful of Lifelong Learners who were able to engage in a discussion from a more experienced point of view

My last presentation of the Tour!

DNA - for the 15th and final time

We Are Africa - for the 15th and final time

The second to the last stop on the Road Tour was amazing! We were hosted by Joann Price and the Seniors Ministry of Union Baptist Church in Hartford, CT. The church was such a beautiful backdrop for sharing and learning about history from the seniors of the community.

Union Baptist Church

We revealed the ancestries of 10 members of the group and their results were met with much enthusiasm and excitement!

Excited Reveal!

Very Happy!

Now I have to tell you, I absolutely love JoAnn. She is a longtime supporter of African Ancestry. So I could not figure out WHY it was taking her so long to do her own test…until I got to the church. She has such a generous spirit that she kept giving hers away to one of the seniors! So, with their help, we got her to FINALLY do her test. I hope that she is my Fulani cousin!

JoAnn Takes the Test!

It wouldn’t be a church Seniors event without lunch. Woo-hoo!

Not everyone was a Senior…

Not Just for Seniors

We enjoyed meeting all of the families that joined us too. Ramona and John O’Neal have been following us online and we finally got to meet them in person!

The O'Neal Family

One more stop to go. Boston, we are on our way!

Victoria Reflects

Click here for more photos or video from Hartford.

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!

Imagine an African-centered high school with a 100% graduation rate, a 100% college acceptance rate, and a 100% scholarship receipt rate. It exists. In Philadelphia. Imhotep Institute Charter High School is led by Mama Christine Wiggins and was the location for the Philadelphia stop on the We Are Africa Road Tour.

Philadelphia was a special stop for many reasons. First, my family is from there. So we had four generations of the Paige family celebrating our Nigerian roots.

Second, we revealed the ancestries of Former Mayor Wilson Goode, the first African American mayor of Philadelphia and Stanley Straughter, Chairman of the Mayor’s Commission on African and Caribbean Immigrant Affairs. Mr. Straughter is a devout Pan-Africanist and so it took some arm-twisting to get him to find his maternal roots. I promised to let what is revealed at Imhotep, stay at Imhotep! Mayor Goode was kind enough to join us during his 50th wedding anniversary weeklong celebration. And, for good reason. We revealed that his maternal roots are in Guinea-Bissau and his paternal roots are Yoruba, from Nigeria!

Gina and Stan Straughter

Mayor Goode

Plus, we had some serious African Ancestry family members in the house! One of our elders walked through the door ready to share her story. As she tells it, when she opened her results envelope, she was so happy that she “went beserk”.

Telling Her Story

Muhammad Aliyu doesn’t leave home without his African Ancestry Certificate of Ancestry! How’s that for showing your pride?

Wallet Size!

Click here for more photos from the Philadelphia scrapbook! Do You Know?

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.