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.
50 African-American have arrived the Nigerian city of Benin on a mission to trace their ancestry. The tourists, arrived Benin from California, United States of America (USA), and were entertained by the Benin Cultural Troupe as well as been treated to delicious local African dishes, including palm oil fruits soup (banga), blended vegetable (black) soup, owo soup, pounded yam and agidi (corncake) among others.
By Imani Pope-Johns
The perception that African-Americans are moving to Africa, whether they have been or not, has become a trending topic for the past few years. Howard University Assistant Professor of Journalism, Mark Bedford, traveled to Ghana as an advisor for Alternative Spring Break, a week of local and international volunteerism by Howard University faculty, staff and students. He recently published a story for Narratively, after witnessing first-hand the increased number of African-Americans migrating to Africa, and the booming market for opportunities they’re taking advantage of, such as the technology industry.
Continue reading “African-Americans Moving to Africa? Howard Professor Publishes Article on Their Reasons for Leaving the U.S.”
Livingstone College was the only historically black college in North Carolina represented at the HBCU Africa Homecoming Initiative media launch June 10 in Washington. Kimberly Harrington, assistant director of public relations, endorsed the initiative on behalf of Livingstone President Jimmy R. Jenkins Sr.
Continue reading “Livingstone endorses HBCU Africa Homecoming”
By Kevin Cokley
The irony of Juneteenth is that while African-Americans celebrate a holiday on June 19 that commemorates the abolition of the last remaining enslaved Africans in Texas, many African-Americans have been socialized to distance themselves from Africa and Africans. Ghanaian president, Nana Akufo-Addo designated 2019 “The Year of Return” to commemorate 400 years since the arrival of the first enslaved Africans in Jamestown, Va.
Continue reading “Juneteenth should be a time for African-Americans to connect with Africa”
By Nii Ntreh
Americans of African descent are open to knowing where in Africa they would have been had history not taken them to the US. Most of those in this category are celebrities. Here are some of America’s most famous black people who have known from DNA and background searches, the African countries they originated from.
Continue reading “Here are the African roots of some African-American stars including Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey”
Black & Abroad, an online travel and lifestyle platform, encourages African Americans to visit such ancestral countries as Senegal through a new project called “Go Back to Africa.”
By Andrea Sachs
Eric Martin and Kent Johnson found inspiration in the offensive. Four years ago, the pair launched Black & Abroad, an online travel and lifestyle platform for African Americans.
Continue reading “Black & Abroad founders encourage African Americans to visit their ancestral continent”
Ancestry Pioneer Joins NAACP’s Jamestown to Jamestown Delegation and Ghana’s The Year of Return 2019
Nearly four hundred years ago the first enslaved Africans were sold to America, losing much of their rich African heritage. This August, AfricanAncestry.com will correct history for many African Americans in an historic ancestral Reveal hosted on African soil. The event takes place in Accra, Ghana, and is a part of the NAACP’s Jamestown to Jamestown event in partnership with Ghana’s Year of Return 2019.
Continue reading “AfricanAncestry.com to Host Ancestral Reveal For African-Americans at Ghana’s ‘Door of No Return’”
By Bode Durojaiye
Seventy African-Americans have traced their ancestral lineage to the ancient town of Oyo, Nigeria and were feted at a reception organised in their honor at the Palace of the Alaafin of Oyo, Oba Lamidi Olayiwola Adeyemi 111. The monarch used to the occasion to call on the Nigerian government embark on re-integrating Yorubas across the globe back to their ancestral roots.
In their first 250 years in America, Africans were not allowed to get married. A commemorative Royal Return Wedding 400: a traditional African wedding is being organised by Royal Return Ghana. The Premiere Mass Royal Traditional African Wedding Launch is to be held at First Africans Landing Site in Hampton, Virginia on August 24, 2019 during the city’s 400 Years Commemoration of African American History.
Continue reading “Mass Royal Traditional African Wedding for African-Americans Denied Marriage During Slavery”
By Carol Daniel
A Webster University professor has long been an amateur genealogist but her discoveries took a huge leap forward with her recent ancestry.com test. Because family ties were severed by slavery in the United States, most African-Americans had little hope of finding relatives in Africa.
Continue reading “Webster professor connected to African roots in Nigeria by ancestry test”
By Mercedes Bent
At a naming ceremony in the home of my host family in Lagos, Nigeria, I wore brightly colored traditional clothing — a long, rectangular skirt tied tightly around my waist and an off-the-shoulder top withshort, flared cuffs, all in a pink ankara pattern with a matching head wrap.
“Please stand,” said my host, who had graciously offered to tailor the ceremony — which is normally performed for babies — for me, her adult visitor from the United States.
“I hereby give you the name Esosa; it means ‘God’s gift.’ You are now Esosa Oloke. Welcome to the family. You will always have a family here in Nigeria.”
Continue reading “The Trip I Hope All African-Americans Can Take”
Ghana was one of the main West African departure points for the transatlantic slave trade.The government has launched a campaign to reach out to the descendants of those Africans who were forcibly removed from their homelands.
It has dubbed 2019 the “Year of Return”.
Several hundred people have already put down roots in Ghana, many of them African-Americans.
The programme is prepared by Patrick Lovett and James Vasina.
By Eli Chen
African Americans often have scant knowledge about where their ancestors are from, so many are using DNA test kits, like 23andMe and Ancestry, to trace their roots. The transatlantic slave trade erased a lot of information about family history and countries of origin for many people descended from African slaves.
It took nearly 30 minutes for Eric Depradine to extract a saliva sample from his dying grandmother. Depradine, 35, of Kansas City, wanted to have his grandmother’s DNA tested to confirm his suspicions that her ancestors came from Madagascar.
Continue reading “For African Americans, DNA tests reveal just a small part of a complicated ancestry”
The Jamestown to Jamestown Memorial Trip to Ghana, an official event of Ghana’s Year of Return, was announced at the 50th NAACP Image Awards in Hollywood, California by Diallo Sumbry, Ghana’s first Black American Tourism Ambassador, in partnership with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
By Maya DuBois
The non-profit organization Motherland Connect takes HBCU students to their African roots one country at a time.
The Motherland Connect started in South Africa and it operates on Florida A&M University’s campus via political science assistant professor Christopher Daniels. Continue reading “American students visit Africa via Motherland Connect”
By Tanasia Kenney
A researcher at Newcastle University in Great Britain has pieced together the history of a remarkable woman believed to be the last survivor of the trans-Atlantic slave trade ships that arrived in the U.S.
Redoshi, later known as Sally Smith, was kidnapped from a village in modern-day Benin, West Africa, and brought to the United States, where she lived and died on the Alabama plantation where she was enslaved, according to research by Dr. Hannah Durkin.
When a group of Prince Hall Masons from North Carolina arrived in Cotonou, Benin last month for the inauguration of a new grand lodge in Cotonou, the cultural significance wasn’t lost on the masons from Benin.
After The American Revolutionary War (1775-83), a formerly enslaved man from Massachusetts who had fought in the war for independence, was attracted to Freemason ideals like brotherly love, justice, and liberty, but the exclusively white group wouldn’t allow a black man in its ranks. The man, Prince Hall, wasn’t one to take no for an answer, though.
With all the traditional tenets of masonry, he decided to start his own group of masons.
They gathered in a clearing by a stream in Baltimore County one chilly early-spring day, some in the colorful African head ties known as geles, others wearing bracelets trimmed in shells or carved in wood.
One by one, they stepped forward to toss offerings into the Gwynns Falls – a pineapple, four oranges, a bouquet of tulips.
And when the lead priestess of these African-American women dropped a handful of shells to the ground and scrutinized their pattern, a message came through: Their celebration of the spring equinox was blessed by the divine.
A new children’s museum in the works for northwest Baltimore is hoping to shed light on a sometimes-forgotten chapter of black history.
“Mama Kiki” Armstrong, originally from Ghana, wants to feature music, drumming and dancing that have influenced American pop culture at the Sankofa Children’s Museum, and bridge the gap of missing history.
“This should help them appreciate the culture,” Armstrong said. “We’re not just talking about African-American kids. We’re talking about all the kids in the community.”
Continue reading “New African Children’s Museum Set To Open In Baltimore, First In The Country”
Bridging the gap between the African and African-American experience is the goal of a new study abroad program offered by University of Oregon’s Global Education Oregon program.
The program is partnering with two historically black colleges and universities on the study abroad experience. At least 15 students will be able to enroll in the program; the application deadline is March 15.
Students will begin by spending time in New Orleans. The city, which served as the first port of entry for many slaves coming to America, retains cultural and historical markers, many of which are still apparent today. Students will stay on the campus of Xavier University of Louisiana and visit landmarks and other important sites in the state.
From there, students will travel to Ghana, where they will live with host families while attending classes and excursions, including visits to historical points of interest related to the trans-Atlantic slave trade. At the conclusion of the program, the group will travel to Kumasi and to Cape Coast to visit one of the largest open-air markets in Africa and to see the castles used in the slave trade.
By Sunday Isuwa
Participants at the US Embassy Black History Month event have called for more collaboration with their brothers in America especially those who can’t trace their African roots.
The programme which was with the theme: “Building Bridges between Africa and the African Diaspora,” the participants said there is no good awareness between Africans in the continent and their brothers and sisters in the Diaspora especially those in Britain, Spain, America, Caribbean and other places about their roots.
According to some of the participants, the great migration from Africa to Europe was huge but insisted if they must build a strong continent, there must be a better collaboration and relationship with the African-Americans.
Continue reading “Nigerians Seek More Collaboration With African-Americans”
American comedian and actor, Kevin Hart has reached out to a young Nigerian artist who posted a drawing of him on Twitter.
The power of social media yeah?
The Kaduna-based artist, Eli Waduba Yusuf had posted the drawing two days ago, February 25, 2019, and asked users to retweet till it gets to Hart and it did.
Yusuf wrote that he is a hyperrealism pencil artist and will like to become like Arinze Egbengwu who is best known for creating hyperrealistic pencil drawings.
He wrote, on Twitter:
“My name is Eli Waduba Yusuf Am a Nigerian, based in Kaduna. Am a hyperrealism PENCIL Artist, I hope to become like @Harinzeyart. Please Retweet, let @KevinHart4real see it, thank you.”
Hart replied saying he has seen and will like to support him by paying him to do a pencil of three of his celebrity friends.
“I see it and I want to purchase it…I also want to support you and your amazing talent by giving you a fee to do a pencil drawing of 3 of my celebrity friends that I can gift it to. DM your info and let’s get to work!”
Continue reading “ANCESTRY.COM releases new data for African diaspora to unearth their lineage”
It was about 4am when his phone buzzed with a message from far away. He read it once, twice, three times before he woke his wife to tell her the news.
“I’m a prince,” he whispered as she blinked herself awake. “A prince.”
Jay Speights, an interfaith pastor from Maryland, US, could hardly believe the words as he formed them in his mouth. Him? A prince? He grew up in New Jersey. He lives in an apartment. He does not even own a car.
Speights, 66, had spent much of his life wondering about his forebears, probing public records until the trail went cold. Like many black Americans who are descendants of slaves, Speights could find little written evidence of his family’s history. In April, he turned to a DNA test from Ancestry in the hope that something, somewhere might turn up.
He was identified as the distant cousin of a man named Houanlokonon Deka – a descendant of a royal line in Benin, a small nation that once housed West Africa’s biggest slave port. At the urging of a friend, he ran his DNA data through another database that looks for matches between African Americans and Africans who have taken such tests.
Continue reading “I’m a prince’: An American pastor shocked to find he has African royal ties”
My first visit to Ghana this past summer of 2018 was filled with expected adventure, pleasures, learning. I did not know how I would be accepted. My thoughts were that I may be taken advantage of as a foreigner. I held my guard up for what may be the unexpected. My passion/love for my Black people gave me strength; I now know that there’s a plenty we didn’t know about our past.
Continue reading “‘Come Back Home,’ says Pittsburgh resident Jay Donaldson after visit to Ghana”
By Helen Frazier
Continue reading “The Tale of Two Sisters: A Journey to West Africa”
