Tracing My African Roots

I have always had in interest in African American history for as long as I can remember. But it was during my first teaching job in Racine in 1968 that I became a devoted learner of African American history. I was hired to teach Industrial Arts at McKinley Junior High School but convinced my principal to let me teach a black history class as an extra teaching assignment. During the next three years, in preparation for class, I learned all that was available about slavery and black people who helped make America the great country it is today.

Like many other blacks, I have always wondered about what part of Africa my ancestors came from. But I am not as fortunate as Alex Haley to be able to trace my family roots back to a specific family member in Africa.

I watched the phenomenally successful television mini-series “Roots” during the 1970’s. Alex Haley told of his own family’s saga beginning with an African ancestor named, Kunta Kinte. Since then thousands of African Americans have traveled to West Africa hoping find out more about their African lineage. However, many returned from their trips frustrated by the absence of specific information about their roots.

But now as science races forward, DNA testing will allow thousands Americans to trace their genealogical ancestry back to Africa and other European countries. It will allow them to take a step into the past. Professor Rick Kittles, a Howard University geneticist, has developed a DNA test that allows African Americans to trace their African heritage. The test gives blacks an opportunity to find out where their African ancestors came from. Professor Kittles co-founded a company called African Ancestry out of a personal endeavor to find out his own African linage.

African Ancestry sends you a kit containing two swabs. You rub them along the inside of your cheeks, and then use an overnight delivery service to get the samples to the company’s laboratory. Your samples are compared to an African Lineage Database. The exclusive database contains the DNA maps for over 9,000 African individuals from 82 population groups drawn from across all the regions exploited by the trans-Atlantic slave trade, from Senegal in the northwest of Africa to Mozambique in the southwest. Most blacks came to the United Sates from the West Coast of African areas that are now Nigeria, Benin, Togo, Ghana and Sierra Leone. Smaller numbers of slaves came from Senegal, the Gambia, the Congo River basin and Angola.

For $349 African Ancestry Inc. will test either your female or male lines. The Male line is the one in which your name is passed down. The test to find out where your father’s father came from relies on the male Y-chromosome.

The oldest member of my family on Daddy’s side is Horace Fountain. Horace was born in 1820 but I haven’t figured out his relationship to me yet. My family research has been stuck in the year 1820 for a few years now and I have been trying to figure out to get it moving forward again. Maybe the DNA test is just the needed jump start. A trip to Africa you say? Well I do plan to visit Africa in the near future but not until I take that test. (I was just thinking. They’ve been looking for me for a while and once I take this DNA test they will surely find out where I am. They’ll probably be sending their “peoples” and the car around for me, heh, heh, heh). I don’t expect to find out a lot of detailed information. Generally, if the test can determine what area of the African West Coast my ancestors came from I would be happy. Then a trip to Africa would be in order. But I have to save some money first though.

About 3,000 people have been tested by African Ancestry according to figures from the company’s website. Good Morning America did a report on the DNA testing on October 21. GMA reported that several celebrities have taken the tests, including talk show host Opra Winfrey, director Spike Lee, actor Isaiah Washington and ABC News’s Ron Claiborne.
The idea and possibility of finding out what part of Africa my ancestors came from is one of the most exciting breakthroughs since I began my family research project some thirty years ago. I expect that I will be ordering that DNA kit real soon.

Later!