From Guardian Newspaper
Former heavyweight boxing champion, Deontay Wilder, stunned fans globally after he revealed on Saturday he had traced his roots to Edo State.
Continue reading “Deontay Wilder reveals he has traced his roots to Nigeria”
Tag: African American ancestry
By Punch Newspapers
Popular American preacher, Bishop T.D Jakes of the Potter’s House, has revealed how he discovered that his ancestors are from the Igbo tribe of Nigeria. Jakes, who is a renowned author, in an interview with BBC Igbo said his Igbo ancestry was discovered after DNA test.
Continue reading “Pastor T.D Jakes | How I traced my ancestry to the Igbo tribe in Nigeria”
By Biba Adams | The Grio
Akon, the Senegalese-American musician, business mogul and humanitarian says that African Americans blame slavery for every ‘mishap’ and should just come back to Africa where they are not the minority. In an interview VladTV, rapper Akon said that Black Americans would benefit from “letting go” of the past trauma of slavery.
Continue reading “Akon |Rapper tells Black Americans to let go of the past and come back to Africa”
BBy Nylah Burton | Vox
Porsche Little, a Brooklyn-based artist, diviner, and aborisha — or someone who serves the Orisha, a group of spirits central to the Yoruba and other African Diaspora religions — says that she has received a huge increase in requests for divinations and readings throughout the pandemic.
Continue reading “How some Black Americans are finding solace in African spirituality”
By Isoke Samuel | NBC
The genes of 50,000 descendants of slaves reveal the effects of the global slave trade generations later, according to a study published Thursday in the American Journal of Human Genetics. Researchers analyzed data provided by thousands of 23andMe customers who agreed to share their genetic information to better understand the impact of forced migration on the genealogy of the descendants of enslaved Africans in the Americas.
Continue reading “High percentage of Nigerian ancestry found in Black Americans in the U.S. as study reflect the hardships and realities of slavery”
By Derrick Bryson Taylor | The New York Times
Juneteenth, an annual holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States, has been celebrated by African-Americans since the late 1800s. But in recent years, and particularly following nationwide protests over police brutality and the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and other African-Americans this year, there is a renewed interest in the day that celebrates freedom.
Continue reading “These are some details and facts about Juneteenth?”
by Joseph Omotayo | Legit
A senior government official in Nigeria has said if George Floyd had taken an ancestry DNA test before he was killed, he probably would have found out he was a Nigerian. This was said when two Nigerian agencies joined forces to hold a memorial in remembrance of the slain African-American in Abuja, Nigeria.
Continue reading “If George Floyd had done his DNA, he was probably from Nigeria”
DAVE BROWN is the founder of the ‘INDIE NIGHT FILM FESTIVAL’. He is an entrepreneur, an actor, and also a radio show host. He recently visited Ghana for The Year of Return festivities and he talks about his experience.
Read more from source Americans-in-Africa
Rashad McCrorey, founder of Africa Cross Culture, a travel company that reconnects African Americans with their roots in the diaspora, believes that Ghana’s Year of Return campaign has sparked curiosity among black travelers to visit black destinations.
By Parker Diakite | Jacksonville Free Press
Continue reading “How Ghana’s Year Of Return Campaign Put Black Destinations In The Spotlight”
by Dana Givens| Black Enterprise
With the rise in DNA testing, popularity of Afrobeats music, and interest in African culture with movies like Black Panther, there has been an influx of African Americans looking to African countries for tourism, business opportunities, and possibly to relocate. For those interested in doing business across Africa, you may want to consider learning some French.
Continue reading “If You Want To Connect To The African Diaspora Abroad, Consider Learning This Language”
By Rosie Bell
AS PART OF MY voyage of the heart to heal from the sudden loss of my mother, Grace, I headed far afield to Brazil, a country she loved wholeheartedly yet never visited. During my mission to forget her passing, I encountered many a reminder of her aliveness, the dishes she cooked, and the tales she told of the place she was born: Nigeria.
Continue reading “After my mother died, I reconnected with her Nigerian heritage through food at Rio Carnival”
A new travel movement is forging ancestral links in West Africa.
BY HEATHER GREENWOOD DAVIS AND STARLIGHT WILLIAMS
LAST SUMMER IN Ghana, Tiffany Heard followed her guide to his hometown of Kumasi. There, in a courtyard in the country’s second largest city, as locals chanted and sang, the 34-year-old travel planner from California waited for her new name.
Continue reading “How Ghana became the hottest destination for African-American travelers”
African-American rapper, Lil Wayne, has said that he is 53 per cent Nigerian. He said this during his chat with hosts N.O.R.E. and DJ EFN as a guest on the “Drink Champ” show that airs Revolt TV.
According to him, an ancestry test conducted by a website he shared some of his details on proved that he’s more Nigerian than American.
Continue reading “I am more Nigerian than American – Lil Wayne”
Some travelers have long desired a chance to mend family trees broken by slavery. For others, it’s complicated.
Tiffany Ferrette, a 26-year-old policy analyst who lives in Washington, DC, started piecing together bits of her family tree while she was in college.
This longing to know her heritage in part influenced her decision to travel to the West African countries of Togo, Benin, and Ghana last December with travel company Magic & Melanin. Ferrette has traveled extensively since she was a teenager, but mostly to Spanish-speaking countries. She says, however, that she was always seeking out black communities wherever she traveled as a way to see herself in the wider world around her.
Continue reading ““Heritage travel” is surging in the era of DNA testing. It has a special significance for black Americans.”
By Henry Ojelu
National Basketball Association, NBA star, Andre Tyler Iguodala is on his way to Africa. Iguodala was born in Springfield, Illinois. His mother is African American, while his father is Nigerian. Aside winning several laurels as an NBA star, Iguodala is also a tech-investor and a leading advocate for athletes in the NBA to invest in the technology industry. His partnership with entrepreneurs in San Francisco’s Silicon Valley has led to an annual event tagged Players Technology Summit.
Continue reading “Meet the Nigerian-American NBA star, Andre Iguodala, who is driving tech investments in US and Africa”
Drummers, dancers and local residents welcomed the NAACP delegation at Kotoka International Airport, as the group made their long-awaited arrival in Ghana for the Year of Return.
The excitement was palpable as almost 300 African Americans touched down in Accra for an eventful week that is akin to a homecoming.
Continue reading “NAACP Group Arrives In Ghana Exactly 400 Years Since First Slaves Were Brought To U.S.”
BY VANESSA MBONU
This week marks 400 years since the first African were forcefully brought to the United States. To memorialize this history, more than 200 African Americans made their way to Virginia, the first leg in a week-long journey retracing the steps of their ancestors dubbed Jamestown 2 Jamestown.
Continue reading “Participants Find Solace In Ancestral Tribute During The First Day Of The Jamestown To Jamestown Journey”
Written by TMZ
Steve Harvey had a hard time walking through a slave trade site in Ghana — where countless Africans were brutalized and tortured … and the photos are tough to see.
The legendary comedian and daytime talk show host was with his family Friday visiting the Elmina Castle on the Cape Coast — where they were getting a tour and being briefed on the dark past of the trading post that was erected by the Portuguese in the 1400s.
Continue reading “Steve Harvey BREAKS DOWN AT GHANA SLAVE CASTLE”
Bronx high school students got an incredible opportunity to learn more about the rich cultural history of Senegal.
Students traveled overseas just last month and say the trip changed them.
https://NEWS12BX.images.worldnow.com/interface/js/WNVideo.js?rnd=287093401;hostDomain=bronx.news12.com;playerWidth=630;playerHeight=355;isShowIcon=true;clipId=14890540;flvUri=;partnerclipid=;adTag=News;advertisingZone=;enableAds=true;landingPage=;islandingPageoverride=;playerType=STANDARD_EMBEDDEDscript;controlsType=overlay Continue reading “Trip to Africa is one to remember for students in the Bronx”
The founder of Adinkra Cultural Arts Studio (ACAS) in Mount Rainier, Sumbry is at the helm of the “Year of Return” movement that has many African Americans heading to Ghana for pilgrimage, immersion and enjoyment. Leading a handful of tours to Ghana over the last five years, Sumbry recognizes that immersion is apart of the reacclimation process.
By Nyame-kye Kondo
Continue reading “This Organization Sparked the ‘Year of Return’ buzz that has got everyone heading to Ghana”
Washington DC – May 1, 2017: The 115th Congress of the United States of America passes a Resolution (‘HR 1242’) establishing the “400 Years African American History Commission” to carry out activities to commemorate the anniversary.
Washington DC – Friday, Sept 28, 2018: President Akufo Addo launches ‘Year of Return’
By Halligan Agade
American actor and film producer Samuel L. Jackson has traced his ancestry through Finding Your Roots, an American docu-series that uses traditional genealogical research and genetics to discover the family history of celebrities.
The Hollywood veteran found discovered his roots to the Bantu tribe in the West African nation of Gabon.
Continue reading “American actor Samuel L. Jackson travels to Africa to meet his relatives in Gabon”
By María Elena Romero, Producer Joyce Hackel
Jean Kapenda always hoped to help African Americans to find their African roots. That dream came true in a very personal way. Kapenda, a criminal justice professor at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, has been interested in genealogy and ancestry for a long time. A few years ago, he did a swab and sent it to a genetic testing site.
After getting the results, Kapenda, who is originally from Democratic Republic of Congo, has been able to trace hundreds of relatives in the Americas, most of them the descendents of people enslaved and sent on ships across the ocean.
Continue reading “A DNA test connected two distant cousins — and filled out a family history that slavery erased”
By Dwayne Wong (Omowale)
The slave trade not only physically separated African Americans and Africans, but it created a psychological separation as well. At the root of this continued division between the two groups are misconceptions rooted in the narratives that each group has been given about themselves, as well as each other. As African people we continue to view ourselves and each other through the lens of the colonizer. For this reason African Americans tend to view Africans in the same manner as Europeans do, and Africans tend to view African Americans the same way. In this article I will look at the roots of where these misconceptions came from.
Continue reading “Understanding the Division Between African Americans and Africans”
“No one had to tell us—we felt at home!”
By Rachelle Salnave In OkayAfrica
Haitian-American indie filmmaker shares the gift she gave her daughters of traveling to Ghana, West Africa for the first time during The Year of Return.
Staying at Agoo Hostel in Nima was a page out of the 1980’s American TV series, The Love Boat—except the characters were Ghanaian!
“Akwaaba! Welcome home my sistahs,” is a phrase we were told not just at Agoo, but throughout our entire Ghana girls trip. Akwabba is not just this country’s motto—it’s the vibe in Ghana.
Continue reading “Travel Diary: Rachelle Salnave and Her Daughters Are Welcomed Home To Ghana In the Year of Return”
This month marks 400 years since the first African slaves arrived in the United States and the beginning of the transatlantic slave trade. Overall some 12 million enslaved Africans were transported across the Atlantic. This year is also Ghana’s ‘Year of Return’, an initiative launched by the Ghanaian government to encourage the African diaspora to come back to Ghana.
Sicley Williams moved to Accra from Atlanta in the US back in 2017. She told Newsday’s Bola Mosuro what about her personal reasons for making the move.
BY J.S. ADAMS
Close to the shores of Langma Beach in Ghana, West Africa, Carol Muhammad enjoys her six bedroom house with her husband, Robert Muhammad. The couple made the move from Phoenix, Ariz., to Ghana in May, after Robert Muhammad retired.
The two haven’t looked back.
Continue reading “Going Back to Africa a blessing: Blacks who live, work and play on the continent say returning to the Motherland is beautiful”
By Etsey Atisu
African Americans who have traced their ancestral roots to Ghana, and those living in Ghana with the hope of becoming citizens, have received another boost in their desires after they successfully received final documentation that officially makes them registered voters.
In December 2016, former president, John Dramani Mahama, granted 34 Afro-Caribbeans Ghanaian citizenship. In 2019, as part of activities marking the 400th anniversary of the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in America, the government of Ghana launched the “Year of Return, Ghana 2019”.
By Haleluya Hadero
“Go Back to Africa”, a racist putdown long used used against African-Americans, Africans, and other black people in North America and Europe has been getting a social media makeover.
Black & Abroad, an Atlanta-based lifestyle and travel company targeting black travelers, is reclaiming the derogatory statement with a new tourism campaign encouraging African-Americans to indeed go back to Africa.
Continue reading “A “Go Back to Africa” media campaign uses AI to boost African American tourism”
50 Americans who traced their origin to Benin Kingdom have visited have visited the Palace of the Omo N’Oba N’Edo Uku Akpolokpolo, the Oba of Benin, Oba Ewuare II.
While welcoming the Americans, Oba Ewuare II commended them for making effort to trace their roots back home and thanked the ancestors for protecting them in their sojourn.
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