Just a quick hit. Listening to NPR (as I can often be found doing while working tirelessly at my desk) and the topic of digital and DNA geneology came up. As African-Americans in this country we have a very unique and lamentable position as far as history goes, in that there was a concerted governmental effort to wipe out our connection with our past that lasted around 400 years. Slavery means more than just whips and chains and beatings, from which most people can recover. It is the loss of connection with the past, with ancestry, with the stories and fables and wisdom of culture that we, as a people, are still struggling mightily to overcome even till this day. One might even argue that our susceptibility to adopting corporate and media images as culture has it's roots in this lack of historic and familial base. But what I want to mention is a website www.africanancestry.com which has genetic tests to trace back your geneology to specifc places in Africa and specific tribal groups living in the area. Personally, I am all for this and if you can pony up the money, I believe it's well worth it. But I'll have to do some investigation just to make sure this place is on the up and up. Perhaps, if it is, I will introduce it to the fam at the Reunion in LA and see what they think, if they havent done it already. Of all the things that I've desired to give Camille, a sense of family history and cultural identity are the things I've wanted the most and feared I wouldn't be able to give. Now, I might have the chance. If you've got any other geneological stories or tips, hit me up and lemme know
Benticore
Out
2 comments:
Jag off.
People who get upset because they find out that their ancestry isn't a straight line back to Africa and feel that that somehow makes them less black make baby jesus cry...
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