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Sabiana
Regular Poster
Username: Sabiana
Post Number: 29
Registered: 08-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Saturday, August 05, 2006 - 11:49 pm: | 
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DNA Testing Allows African-Americans to Trace Ancestry
Several Celebrities Have Used the Test
Oct. 21, 2005 — - To help African-Americans trace their ancestry, companies are selling DNA-based genealogy tests that claim to pinpoint where a client's ancestors came from in Africa. Several celebrities have taken the tests, including talk show host Oprah Winfrey, director Spike Lee, actor Isaiah Washington and now ABC News' Ron Claiborne.
"Like so many Americans, I have always wondered about my own roots," Claiborne said. "But as with many African-Americans, I have never known from where in Africa my ancestors came. For most of us, the search ends here, in slavery."
Twenty million people were taken from Africa in chains, with no records of who they were or where they came from.
"The transatlantic slave trade broke apart families, cultures, traditions," said Rick Kittles of African Ancestry, www.africanancestry.com, which offers the DNA test. "Many African-Americans, especially young African-Americans, they think their history started with slavery."
When the miniseries "Roots" aired 28 years ago, many black Americans were inspired to search for their own roots. At the time there was little they could do. But today, DNA testing has allowed more than 100,000 Americans to trace their genealogical ancestry back to Africa.
About 3,000 people have been tested at African Ancestry, according to the company. The tests cost between $130 to $650, and in a sign of the growing popularity of the testing, African Ancestry doubled its revenue between 2003 and 2004.
"There are thousands of different ethnic groups and communities and different languages spoken in Africa," Kittles said. "But the communities that we have sampled are those that the historians have suggested have played a big role in terms of the transatlantic slave trade."
As a surprise, Keelechi Igwin, from Nigeria, submitted samples of his wife's family's DNA for testing. His wife, Nia, is from Maryland.
"The thing about being married to Keelechi is, he and his family have the fortune to be able to trace back where there family started from," Nia Igwin said. "Black people living in America, unfortunately, we don't have that. That was taken from us."
The results show Nia Igwin's ancestors are from present-day Cameroon and Nigeria, including Ibo, just like her husband.
"Now it's something to help make things a lot more clear for us, and that's a jewel to me," Nia Igwin said.
Critics say African Ancestry's database is much too small for its results to be so specific. The company said it has a database of more than 22,000 DNA samples from nearly 400 indigenous African groups and reports a match if the statistical probability is 90 percent or higher.
"It is not possible to link anybody in this hemisphere to any ethnic group in Africa at this time," said Bruce Jackson, a geneticist at the University of Massachusetts at Lowell.
Even knowing the possible limitations, Claiborne decided to submit his DNA for testing.
The results were revealed on today's "Good Morning America:" Claiborne's maternal lineage is from Ghana.
"It's like a door has been opened," Claiborne said. "All my life I've thought about how I'd never know, that there would never be a way to figure out where my family came from."
Copyright © 2006 ABC News Internet Ventures
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Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 5746
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, August 06, 2006 - 02:16 am: |
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Sabiana,
Though I'm sure I exaggerate, this potentially offers as great a chance for African Americans and African to reconnect than has ever existed before. |
Nels
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Nels
Post Number: 485
Registered: 07-2005
Rating: 
Votes: 2 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, August 06, 2006 - 03:21 am: |
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Black folks still looking for an identity to belong to? Bet you they'll take a split-level condo over a "grass hut" any day. If they spent less time seaching for that spec of "African" blood and more time searching for that spec of common sense, they wouldn't be shelling out next month's rent on the latest DNA fad: (D)o (N)ot (A)fricanize.
p.s., The term "African American" will be in post-mortem within five years. |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 5750
Registered: 04-2004
Rating:
Votes: 2 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, August 06, 2006 - 03:32 am: |
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Nels,
That was kinda clever. You should consider writing bits for stand-up comedians...
...or Not. |
Kola_boof
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 2727
Registered: 02-2005
Rating:
Votes: 2 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, August 06, 2006 - 03:53 am: |
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There's plenty of gorgeous split level condos in AFRICA and they cost a helluva lot less than the one Nels rents in White Fence.
And why would any human being not want to know where their ancestors came from or who they were?
It's not a black or white thing----to wonder where you began. It's human.
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Shemika
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Shemika
Post Number: 140
Registered: 02-2006
Rating: 
Votes: 1 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, August 06, 2006 - 03:58 am: |
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"The term "African American" will be in post-mortem within five years."
Perhaps so for all the so called 'black' multiracials who only have a 'spec' of African blood left, and the wannabe white worshippers who think as they do. They'll just try to pull everyone else down into their lost identity abyss. Helping their massah maintain the upper hand in the process. |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 5753
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: 
Votes: 5 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, August 06, 2006 - 04:00 am: |
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Kola,
You know I'm usually as open to discussion, be it serious or playful, as anyone who frequently posts here. But this "Nels" character has yet to prove him(her)self worthy of any attention beyond that which one would expend to, say, shoo a fly from a stray piece of shyt. |
Ntfs_encryption
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Ntfs_encryption
Post Number: 551
Registered: 10-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, August 06, 2006 - 08:34 pm: |
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"Black folks still looking for an identity to belong to? Bet you they'll take a split-level condo over a "grass hut" any day. If they spent less time seaching for that spec of "African" blood and more time searching for that spec of common sense, they wouldn't be shelling out next month's rent on the latest DNA fad: (D)o (N)ot (A)fricanize."
Wow! That's hard core!
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Kola_boof
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 2747
Registered: 02-2005
Rating:
Votes: 2 (Vote!) | | Posted on Sunday, August 06, 2006 - 09:05 pm: |
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There's plenty of gorgeous split level condos in AFRICA and they cost a helluva lot less than the one Nels rents in White Fence.
And why would any human being not want to know where their ancestors came from or who they were?
It's not a black or white thing----to wonder where you began.
It's human.
ABM, I agree with this statement 500%, King:
Kola,
You know I'm usually as open to discussion, be it serious or playful, as anyone who frequently posts here. But this "Nels" character has yet to prove him(her)self worthy of any attention beyond that which one would expend to, say, shoo a fly from a stray piece of shyt.
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Sabiana
Regular Poster
Username: Sabiana
Post Number: 31
Registered: 08-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, August 07, 2006 - 12:10 am: |
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Black folks still looking for an identity to belong to? Bet you they'll take a split-level condo over a "grass hut" any day. If they spent less time seaching for that spec of "African" blood and more time searching for that spec of common sense, they wouldn't be shelling out next month's rent on the latest DNA fad: (D)o (N)ot (A)fricanize.
Did you read the article? Would it not make more since for African-Americans to trace roots back to Africa, HENCE the name? This has nothing to do with "split-level condos". Believe it or not since you only watch National Geographic many Afican people live like you or me. Or did you just by into the whole Africa= Cess Pool AIDS infected land. "Spec"? Most AA for the majority are African. We can say Native American or Irish etc, but how many AA know what part of Africa they originated from? I take it you don't care.
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Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 5756
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, August 07, 2006 - 01:03 am: |
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Why would we call ourselves African American WITHOUT wanting to really know what the "African" part really MEAN? |
Kola_boof
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 2753
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, August 07, 2006 - 01:04 am: |
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ABM!!!!!
Please come help me:
http://www.thumperscorner.com/discus/messages/179/14371.html?1154926673
I'm crying and I'm very upset.
It's an emergency!
KOLA
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Dahomeyahosi
Veteran Poster
Username: Dahomeyahosi
Post Number: 60
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, August 07, 2006 - 04:21 pm: |
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ABM, as an African in the U.S., that's a question that truly baffles me. |
Abm
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Abm
Post Number: 5768
Registered: 04-2004
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, August 07, 2006 - 04:41 pm: |
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Dahomeyahosi,
Many African Americans have a love-hate relationship with what they perceive to be African/Africa. So they create and perpetuate myths and legends within their mind/heart about the Mother Land that more easy fit within their self-made fantasy.
Perhaps they feel they can't really understand or tolerate the truth of whom and what they are. |
Dahomeyahosi
Veteran Poster
Username: Dahomeyahosi
Post Number: 61
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, August 07, 2006 - 04:54 pm: |
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ABM, I can understand the love-hate relationship. Someone once explained it to me as the relationship between a child (black Americans) and a mother who gave the child up for adoption (Africa). What I don't understand is why a group of people who are so detached from Africa in every way would choose to call themselves African-American. Now I know this was not a group decision and there are many who don't go by this title but it seems to be more and more common. I can't call them that....it feels like a lie. |
Kola_boof
"Cyniquian" Level Poster
Username: Kola_boof
Post Number: 2769
Registered: 02-2005
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, August 07, 2006 - 05:31 pm: |
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Dahomeyahosi,
On this I disagree with you.
Knowing the history of "African-Americans"--the fact is that their blood is overwhelmingly of West African peoples. In many cases, because of the "breeding" slavery inflicted---they are more African than people in Africa.
Culturally, like any tribe...they also have a very distinct culture...one that is overwhelming Africanist.
Unlike us, who are Benin-American, Sudanese-American, Ethiopian-American.....they have no idea of their country of origin....so it is fitting that they should claim the entire continent.
From a strategic standpoint...and you are a scientist, so you should truly be able to grasp this:
The most influence in the world comes from AMERICA.
Every style, fad, musical phenom and "bad habit" that Black Americans do---Africans will copying it in some way.
It doesn't matter that Africans on the continent bad mouth and look down on the Black American---THEY STILL COPY EVERYTHING THEY DO---just as the Black American castigates the WHITES but copies them mercilously.
SO...it behooves us that Black Americans take pride in Africa, that they help us to create positive images of Africa and that they begin to understand what exactly has happened to Africa and how that affects ALL BLACK PEOPLE, who by bloodberry, are all related to Africa.
Africans must acknowledge our chauvinism---our own prejudices against Blacks OUTSIDE Africa, and must realize that it will take all of us to REDEEM Africa...to ourselves.
Many Pan-African leaders in the 1960's believed in this ideology of NEGRITUDE...and from my own life experience, I have found it to be not only true---but CRUCIAL to our survival.
If the European can honor a SHARED WHITENESS and use it to rule the planet, then surely we can recognize the power in like common sense.
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Dahomeyahosi
Veteran Poster
Username: Dahomeyahosi
Post Number: 63
Registered: 01-2006
Rating: N/A
Votes: 0 (Vote!) | | Posted on Monday, August 07, 2006 - 09:40 pm: |
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Kola,
I don't deny that black Americans have African ancestry as they clearly do. And it is fully their right to investigate and embrace it. However for the great majority I don't see any true pride in them for Africa and, unlike you, I don't see any real cultural reflections. So it doesn't make logical sense, to me, to call them African-American. When black Americans come to Africa I think most of them realize how American they are and just how little we have in common. In my area the word used for black Americans is the same used for white Americans.
I absolutely see a shared culture in West Africa and see the people of that region as very similar. The logical question I ask myself is where does West Africa end and the rest of Africa begin? I don't know but it does. In the U.S. I have reached out to any black African within close vicinitybecause I will settle for anyone who knows something about home. But I don't believe in Pan-Africanism because it seems to rest on the idea that race is more important than culture. Europeans and their diaspora have a common culture and therefore "whiteness" and the relationships they build makes sense for them. I don't agree that black people have a shared culture. I must also admit that many of those people called black wouldn't be considered black where I am from. So since Pan-Africanism rests on weak racial criteria and non-existant cultural criteria I reject it. I reject it the same way that "black" Americans rejected the indigenous "Liberians" that they enslaved and ruled over. I have no problem with those people like the ones we call Brazilians in Benin who've returned from abroad with their indentities as Africans mostly intact (hence their return and absorption into our society). I can call them African-Americans without the feeling that I am lying.
Senghor believed in negritude while living as a Catholic, joining the French Academy of letters, and deciding to write only in French. This is not the kind of man I want to be associated with.
Could you clarify what you mean when you say that breeding has made black Americans more African than continental Africans. Are you referring to the fact that the continent is inhabited by many people who came from other places? |
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