Ancestry has upgraded its DNA test results to show more details about participants ethnic breakdowns. Im taking in something new tonight. Approximately 28% of my DNA is from Cameroon/Congo. Another 18% is from Mali. I know this strain is from my mothers side because she has the same ethnicities show up in her DNA results. Its taken a few days for the implications to sink in. I went online and Googled Cameroon people and Mali people I found resemblance to my family in both groups. Wow... Wow. One thing I know from my and my mothers research on our family tree: Our African lineage in the U.S. reaches way, way back--in some cases to the early 1600s. There are lines we havent been able to trace. So, Im aware that, while Ive been able to trace a few branches of our tree, I have thousands of ancestors--thousands of stories that converged in time and space through love or coercion to produce me. All I can think of now is: When did my Mali ancestors arrive on these shores? What was their story? Were they among the free colonial Africans in our family line? Were they smuggled in after the end of the Atlantic Slave Trade in 1807. When did my Cameroon/Congolese ancestor arrive on U.S. soil? Were they captured in an open field like Alex Haleys Kunta Kinte or were they sold into slavery by neighboring nations? Who were they? Were they royalty, were they artisans, were they warriors? Who were they? What were they thinking as they watched their home--their beloved African shore and beloved family become only cherished memory. What were they feeling? How did they survive in the belly of the beast as they passed over nearly 2 million African souls that haunted the middle passage. How did they survive the scurvy, the smallpox, the dysentery? I want to know... And I want to go home to Cameroon and Congo. I want to go home to Mali. It is hardly the same place it was when my ancestors were taken away, but the people are still there... perhaps something in me and something in them will connect and cry, Family.
Posted on: Tue, 22 Oct 2013 03:17:50 +0000
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