|Testimonials|
Read what people are saying about the African Ancestry experience:
Monique Brooks
Anaya Nassor
I have gotten DNA results for my dad's maternal and paternal lines. The maternal line goes back to the Fulani of Niger and the paternal line goes back to the Yoruba of Nigeria. I gave my 1st son Nigerian names and I changed my name to a Nigerian one long before I knew our ancestry. I was just drawn to the names and their meanings. I have also been drawn to Yoruba spirituality for sometime. Finding out that background just made things make sense to me. I was also excited to hear about the Fulani lineage.
Ronnie "Razon" Robinson
Peace Universal Family, Eye come to you by the divine name if Re'zon, eye have been on a journey if seeking knowledge of self for over 10 years. After recently finding out that eye share a genetic trait with the Hausa and Yours people living in Nigeria today has uplifted my spirit and has me on a quest to continue to search for truth about my ancestors. Eye will all of you to connect with fellow African Ancestry Members and spread the word about African Ancestry and let's unite and build our African nation again.
Sidney Glover
Well first of all I just want to say thank you african ancestry for helping me to find my past. Knowing my past has giving me peace. Now I can say that I am both mbenzele of cameroon and native american. With this knowledge I can past it to my daughter, again african ancestry thank you.
@mmaettelily
Trudy Goodwin
African Ancestry family member
I just wanted to tell you that you have made a remarkable difference in my life. From discovering my roots in Guinea Bissau I have gained a greater awareness and love for self. Further, I did a little research and found that the Djolas were originally from the Sudan. Can you imagine how I quickly developed even greater connection and sympathy to the current affairs occurring in that country.
Thank you for giving me my history.
P.S. I bought [a t-shirt] for my son and I'm afraid he thinks it's the only shirt he owns!
Sheena Bouchet
African Ancestry family member
In 2006, I made my first trip to the Motherland. I visited Senegal and The Gambia. While in The Gambia, our group visited the village of Juffere (the ancestral home of Alex Haley).
Up until that time, I had claimed the entire continent because I was clear about being an African.
When I returned to America, I decided that I needed to know where I came from. I got on line and ordered the kit. I did not tell a living soul.
I waited patiently and quietly for the results. Two months later, the package came through the mail and I began to shiver. It was the longest elevator ride I'd ever taken. I could barely open the door before tearing into the envelope.
There it was in print. Proof that I was (on my mother's side) 100% Fulani from Nigeria!!
This was truly, one of the greatest and proudest moments of my life. I made copies of the certificates and laminated them to show my family and friends. I walk with my copies every day.
I share them to my students who are in the habit of calling themselves the 'n' word. I tell them: "See there is no 'n' in my DNA...and I can guarantee it isn't in your either!!"
I have since ordered certificates for the women on my mother's side.
As the ultimate Father's Day gift, I had my father take the test. We are currently awaiting his results!!
Thank you for affording myself and others the opportunity to get to know our "Roots"
India.Arie
Singer, Songwriter
African Ancestry family member
My MTDNA (MatriClan) showed we descended from the Fang people in Gabon and the Tikar/Hausa/Kotoko people of Cameroon. My dad hasn’t tested yet but I can’t wait until he does...
What a great feeling to know this info, best money I've spent in a while, maybe EVER.
Pastor Kenneth Edward Copeland and First Lady Starla Copeland
New Zion Baptist Church, Rockford IL.
The entire African Ancestry experience moved me in ways that I cannot adequately express in words. In terms of impact, the unveiling or my ancestral connections ranks right up there with witnessing the birth of my children. The difference was that I was the one being (re)born.
I named my daughter “Abeni” which is Yoruba for “We prayed for her arrival.” She is ten years old now. Nigerians tend to have a natural affinity toward my family and I. To find out definitively that my ancestors are the Yoruba and Hausa people from Nigeria was awe-inspiring. I believe that God was giving me clues all along. It felt like a missing piece of my family puzzle was finally put into place.
Tracing my ancestry was more than a cultural exercise. It is a deeply spiritual event. I believe that God is in this movement. It is no coincidence that the Bible itself focuses much on genealogies.
If you don’t know your heritage you can’t fully know who you are.
If you don’t know who you are someone else will define you.
If someone else defines you they tend to define you in terms that position themselves for power and you for subjugation.
If you don’t know your history you can’t trace the trajectory of God’s plan for your life and His plan for your family.
Now that I know I plan to redouble my efforts to research, strategize and invest my resources in ways that build up my people on this side of the Atlantic and on the other side.
God bless you African Ancestry
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Blair Underwood AA: How has the knowledge of your African ancestry (that we provided) has impacted you? |
African Ancestry family member
I had already taken the test with the National Genographic Project. I learned that I have a haplogroup of L3---but that connects me to something maybe 10,000 years ago or more. I wanted "recent" history, so I took the test with African Ancestry…The letter indicated that I have ties to the Yoruba in Nigeria and the Fulani in Niger.
How did I feel and how do I feel? Euphoric, delighted, humbled, and honored. Euphoric with the excitement of just knowing----delighted to know that I had genetic ties to Yorubas, a people I know well, as my husband is Yoruba from Nigeria. Humbled, because I know that there was a Yoruba woman from whom a line of women descend down to me, and it is her strength that brought me here, and I felt honored that I have been so privileged to have lived to a time when such things are possible.
I have researched this line for more than 20 years, beginning in Arkansas, back to Mississippi, to Tennessee and to Virginia. This DNA test with African Ancestry has given me the opportunity to look through the Middle Passage, and to now know this one piece of my history and understand that I now have a tie to place that I can call home. It is not just the land and home of my husband's family----it is also a place that I can call home.
Marvin Dickerson
President, 100 Black Men of Greater Washington, DC
James Wiggins Jr.
Bellmawr, NJ
I am writing to you, because in my search for my family to gain a better insight into my future and because of you: you have brought my great grand father James Lovick (b) 1823, a slave have brought home.
I have been tracing my family roots since the age of 13 I am now 44 and live in the city of Philadelphia, Pa., where there is a large African Community (west Philly). So I got on a web site and put myself as Kru cousin (Kru name of tribe DNA said my mother’s father’s family is linked too!) and the man in the picture Sam answered me and we have and we have been talking about family likeness we hit it off he also told me things I wanted to know about me etc…we played phone tag for a while a good year and as of last week we finally met I must say it I good to have home so close?
I have found a distant cousin and yet so very close I have called family members and hopefully we can get our lives back on track from being off track per say...and I gave a African name…Koffa…Because I never gave up, I persevere
So I am sending you a picture of me and my African cousin Samuel Dempster Kru!
So in closing, thank you very much!
James A. Wiggins, Jr.
Sylvia Cyrus
Executive Director, Association for the Study of African American Life and History (ASALH)
Nicole McGowan
Detroit, MI
Thank you for assisting me with discovering my family's history. The swabbing was just as easy as you told me it would be.
I took the video home, and it literally gave me chills, knowing that I too, could trace my mother's lineage; what an amazing feeling! I am doing this for my mother, my brother, my granny, aunts, uncles, cousins, and anyone else on my mother's side who is interested in our history.
Thank you so much.
Donnie Simpson
Radio Personality
To have this [service] available to you, how could you not want to do that? I’ve always wanted to know [where my ancestors were from].
Thomas Johnson
Brandywine, MD
Lawrence Turner
US Marine Veteran
I believed in my heart that I was a descendant from the great kings of Africa and the DNA test was going to prove that fact, but when I received my results I was surprised to find out that I was 100% Italian on my fathers side and 100% Mende from Sierra Leone on my mothers. The Italian part is what really surprised me and now I must find out who my family members are in Italy. I also plan to visit my Mende people who live in Sierra Leone/Liberia soon. Because of this service African Ancestry provides - I found out that I am blood related to Isaiah Washington, Maya Angelou, Andrew Young, Ethan Thomas and Rev. Jesse Jackson whom all are descendants of the Mende people of Sierra Leone.
Thanks African Ancerstry this would not be possible without you!!!!.
Semper Fi,
St. Louis, MO.
Mark Thompson
Radio Personality, Minister, Political Activist
Check out Mark Thompson on "Make It Plain" on Sirius Satellite Radio.
Kimberly Elise
Film and Television Actress
Learning my material lineage has been profoundly enlightening. Not only to myself but to my daughters, mother, aunts and so forth.
The information African Ancestry provided to me has given me an anchor to my past, thus making my present all the more valuable and precious to me. And that self knowledge gives me power. I know my lineage and the history of MY PEOPLE. I come from the Songhai people and through my research I learned my ancestors are known to be great artisans, royalty and warriors of great strength and skill. Knowing these traits are the nuclei composition of my DNA puts all the pieces of who I am instinctually into place and gives me the fortitude to continue living as I always have - from my heart and from my gutteral instincts as I move through life. I can now pass this on to my children and they can remind themselves as I do, " I am born of Songhai - queen, artist, warrior, and wise." I LOVE that! I love that.
John Hope Bryant
Activist, Author and Founder of Operation HOPE
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I am moved more than I ever thought I would be. We are empowered by details, and this small fact is a significant detail in my life, and brings with it such inner dignity. I am forever linked to my beginnings, and I have always felt something very special about being in Africa when I visit the continent. I have always believed that we do business with people and not governments, companies or countries. For African Americans and other interested in Africa, this [DNA ancestry testing] will not only help provide a basis for personal growth, but it will also lay a foundation to build two-way trade relations with one of the richest continents on the face of the earth, mother Africa. |
Cedrick White
African Ancestry family member
As the years went by, the more Yorubas I saw, I was convinced they were my kinfolk, and the same for the people of Ghana.
My maternal ancestry matched 98.9% of the Yoruba of Nigeria…and my paternal ancestry matched 100% with the Akan of Ghana…
I have yet to celebrate, confirmation upon confirmation!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!Ooooooooooooo.. ......weeeeeeeeeeee!!!!! From childhood to adulthood, my fate has only whispered truth upon truth, and, yes indeed I have the scientific proof to attest for it!!!!
(Nigerian-Ghanaian American, no longer just a generic African-American!!!)
African Ancestry family member
No longer is my ethnology a mystery. Thanks to the analysis of African Ancestry, I can now say that my maternal ancestry is 100% Tikar of the Cameroon. As African Americans, we have learned to embrace the Mother continent without having a direct identity to any of its tribes. Now, the lost children of the Motherland can reclaim their rightful place among their respective tribes. Thank you African Ancestry!
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Cynthia Malachi White, MS HRD African Ancestry gave me a window to my past that I could have only dreamed of. I come from a small family of which most of the family has passed on. My generation is alive and well and we are starting to pass now. I have been doing genealogy work on my family for the past twenty years. I always got stuck in Virginia. African Ancestry allowed me on my mother's side to move from Virginia to being a descendent of BALANTA and FUTA peoples in GUINEA-BISSAU, the MENDE people in SIERRA LEONE, and the MANDINKA people in SENEGAL. This was even more important to me because I recently lost one of my 1st cousins who I have worked with in our study of the family. I wanted her to be a part of the journey back to where we originated. She was not able to complete that journey however; I received the results in time to announce them at her memorial service. My cousin always said "... please do not forget your ancestors because in remembering them, they are always present. Remember the lessons that they taught you because whether you know it or not, we are all in training to become ancestors. The work begins today!" I will continue to do research. Thank you and I look forward to getting the results of the other side of my family. |
Judge Glenda Hatchett
Judge, Author, Television Personality
African Ancestry family member
I really felt floored. I was happy to have the results and it changed me a little on how I looked at myself (though I promised myself it wouldn't, lol). I'm happy to know my ancestry goes back to the Motherland and not some slave owner. I plan on visiting the Motherland (Sierra Leone and Nigeria) when I'm able.
James Bullock
African Ancestry family member
I came to this in a round about way. No one in my family talked about family history. There seemed to be a void. The silence spoke volumes. I wondered who we were, where we were from. So I did my own research, and found a brick wall at the 1860's. Then I saw a TV show on DNA and I was fascinated. Here at last was a way to find out the missing pieces of the puzzle. The staff at African Ancestry was extremely helpful, and answered my questions even though I have a very small brain as far as science goes. I took the test. I am still coming to terms with the results, and their implications. But I feel somehow more whole. Now I have a deep personal connection to my ancestors, their lives and their world. I would encourage everyone to take this test. It is a way to honor our past, and acknowledge their sacrifices. Much of what is possible today would not have been possible 50 years ago. Yet their stories tell us that anything is possible. Thank you so much.
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Spike Lee The images of Africa that we receive are often limited and negative. So it is not surprising that African Americans don't have a positive connection to the continent. Now thanks to DNA, African Americans can finally find out what region of Africa their ancestors were from. It was a revelation for me and my family to finally discover part of our ancestry. |
African Ancestry family member
Prevailed! Yes, we have prevailed! I would have never thought in a million years that we would be able to find out what country in Africa or the ethnic group our ancestors were from. I just recently received my results, it shows my maternal sequence is - 100% Fulani and Balanta from Guinea-Bissau and my paternal sequence is - 100% Kru and Kpelle from Liberia. I saw a couple photos of the Fulani and my mother looks like a typical Fulani woman with long hair, thin nose and lips, and reddish-brown skin. I was shocked when I saw a picture of some Fulani women who looked just like my grandmother without her glasses!
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The Honorable Andrew Young What we need now is for people to get deeply involved in one particular country or region or culture, and [using African Ancestry’s services] certainly is one way that anybody can decide that this is where I want to work. |
African Ancestry family member
We are doing tests as a family. This will be the 2006 reunion surprise…when we read the results we were just numb. Not really knowing what to do. Frantically we searched the Internet looking for information…I was awake until 10:30am the next day.
Using Dee Palmer Woodtor's title, it felt like "Finding A Place Called Home." Now, the history of the land now known as Niger is not just African history, it is my history.
Then I felt pain and sadness as I eyed the African continent, from Niger to the west coast. My eyes well up now just thinking about it. This distance, in itself, is very far. Very far from home. How many family members were lost during this journey. Then the ocean and the darkness.
Soon my spirit lifted and I thanked my ancestors for surviving the journey. I thanked them for their strength.
I believe this test will probably do more for African/African American relations than other efforts specifically design to promote Pan Africanism. Also, knowing of our Muslim past may foster tolerance amongst our strongly Pentecostal and Baptist family members.
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Isaiah Washington This African Ancestry service has given me a missing bookend on a long shelf of literature on Africa. I now have a sense of closure and a new meaning for the term African-American. |
African Ancestry family member
I have had the opportunity to travel to Nigeria before, and I suspect that whenever I go back again, this will be a very different way I shall be looking at the country---this time with eyes of one who has "found their place called home".
Etan Thomas
Washington Wizards Center
African Ancestry family member
…I will claim all 5 nations as home of my ancestors. I called my family, ordered books and have been happy about it since receiving the results. So now I am studying each country and culture and have learned more about Africa. I have continued to study the countries and stay informed regarding current affairs. I even inform co-workers where I am from when they mention their family roots...
African Ancestry family member
I did the test for both my father and mother's side of the family. I am Ga (Akan) on my mother's side of the family. I am Fulani Niger on my father's side. My heart yearns to (re)connect with my African family! I want to go there and plant my feet in the soil...I want to smile and shout and look into the eyes of my cousins...I want them to know that we survived. I want my children to know their roots...what their extended family look like and how they live. I want to learn all that I can before I move on to the next place God has for me.
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B. Smith My husband and I were both incredibly excited and proud to find out more about our family roots. For anyone who is interested in their family genealogy and curious to know more about what part of Africa their ancestry is from, then I would say this is a great tool for tracing your family history. |
Evelyn Edney
African Ancestry family member
I just wanted to let you know that the work you are doing with tracing people's roots is a blessing. I am very pleased with your service and I brag on your company every chance I get. Thank you for your service and keep up the good work!!
S. L. Efua Joe, PharmD, RPh, BS Pharmacy
My experience with African Ancestry was very positive: customer service was superb and the need (that I share with most African-Americans) to know specifically who I am was met.
I added my African (Akan) day name to my name a few years ago, Efua-meaning female born on Friday. As such, you can imagine how magnificent it was for me to find out that my father is actually a descendant of the Akan and Ewe people of Ghana!
My mother's heritage is Mandinka, Mende and Balanta/Fula. There is nothing more powerful than knowing who my people are.
African Ancestry family member
I recently received MatiClan results that placed my ancestry at two locations--Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau. Armed with this information empowers me to further my research since I am adopted and don't have another attachment to my birth parents.
Nana Kwaku Yiadom II
Founder & C.E.O., Gateway To West Africa From America World Mission's Inc.
My Sister, on Sunday I watched you guys on TV ONE and was very impressed with your services connecting our brother and sisters with their heritage. It brought tears to my eyes because someone Black has stepped up to the plate to take shackles off the minds of our people.
It would truly be a blessing and accomplishment to bring our people, especially our youth closer to their roots. Remember, "Where There Is No Vision, The People Will Perish!"
African Ancestry family member
I feel on top of the world! When I opened the envelope and read the results, my initial reaction was relief. Then, I was overjoyed to know something about my African heritage. I said relief because I had been worried that we were among the 30% of African-American men whose DNA would be linked to Europe due to white slave-owners' forced sexual advances. But, our DNA sequence turned out to be 100% identical to the Kimbundu (Mbundu) people of Angola! Glory!!!!
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