African Bloodline: My Ancestry Results

I was super curious to know my ethnicity results ever since I shipped off my DNA kit to Ancestry. The company informs you that it will take up to six weeks to obtain your results, which in my case was accurate. It actually came a few days earlier than I expected. One feature that I liked about Ancestry DNA was the text notifications.  They send you multiple text messages throughout the whole process. You receive one once they obtain your kit at the lab. You receive one to inform you they are processing your DNA sample and you receive one once your results are available online. When I received the last message that told me my test results were in, my heart skipped a beat. As I clicked the link in the text message and waited for the result page to load, the suspense grew thick  just like it does when you watch Maury and he says “the results are in” but then breaks for commercial. You have to sit through five minutes of commercials before you hear the results. Well I know I didn’t have to wait five minutes but those seconds seemed like forever. Once the page fully loaded I glanced over everything looking for Ghana to pop up. Lo and behold guess what I found? I am 11% Ghanaian; just as expected from the countless strangers who always stop me in the street to ask if I am from Ghana. The rest of my results read as follows: 56% Benin/Togo, 22% Cameroon/Congo (Southern Bantu People), 11% Ivory Coast/Ghana, 10% Mali and 1% Ireland & Scotland.

I spent hours researching each country and some sites showed the beautiful side of these countries while some showed the not so beautiful side. I started off with Benin being that it had the highest percentage in my results. The first thing that popped up in my google search was Benin is the birthplace of voodoo. My first reaction was oh hell no because I stay far away from that. If I hear the word voodoo I am walking the other way. Shit I feel uncomfortable even typing the word voodoo in my computer right now. When I hear the word voodoo I think of evil, witchcraft, spirits, wrongdoing, sacrifice and blood. These are the words and images I see on television whenever voodoo is mentioned. Then I thought about my last statement I just typed “on television.” I know for a fact that television is designed to tell the narrative of whoever is creating the show or movie. Then I thought to myself what if this is an African tradition that is being negatively skewed to scare people away from Africa. Despite my discomfort with the topic, I stopped in the middle of writing this post to do a quick search about voodoo.  I came across this article written by traveler Mark Stratton (link to his article is below). It was a whole piece about his experience in Benin and his exploration to understand/experience voodoo. He confirmed that voodoo is not what you see on the television. Reading his piece along with a few other articles really opened my eyes to remember sometimes things aren’t what they seem. I truly believe voodoo has been distorted with the intent to paint an African tradition as savage like and demonic. Lets be realistic this would not be the first time the media framed something for their own agenda. Television and media constantly produces racist stereotypical content. If you believe solely in what the media produce then you must think all black people are ghetto, raging, watermelon and chicken eating niggers; #fakenews. If that’s a lie than I’m really inclined to believe voodoo doesn’t involve witchcraft with little dolls and pins.

https://www.wanderlust.co.uk/content/dark-secrets-voodoo-in-benin/

In addition to Benin’s rich voodoo culture, I was also intrigued by their historical Dahomey Amazons. The Amazons were Benin’s all-female military troops, whose mission was exclusively to protect the king. They were the inspiration for the female warriors in Black Panther. It’s cool to know as far back as the 18th century black women were badass, strong and they protected their king; nothing much has changed. Researching the Amazons had me reminiscing about the time my SELF Inc. partner, Latia McAlister, and I designed a lesson plan for our female teen group that highlighted the importance, strength and power of the Dohomey Amazons. We had the girls read about some of the Amazons and act out a monologue as if they were one of them. It was epic watching them choose a warrior and do their own rendition of what she might have been like. At that time I had no idea my ancestors were from Benin. Shit who’s to say my great great great great… grandmother wasn’t an Amazon. A sistah can dream right? I may be reaching but either way when I visit Benin I would like to go see the Royal Palaces of Abomey, where the Amazon warriors served.  

After that I researched Togo, Cameroon, Congo, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Mali. Togo is known for its beautiful beaches and scenery. Cameroon is known as a melting pot because it houses so many ethnic groups (approx. 250). The Republic of Congo is known as the fourth largest oil producer in the Gulf of Guinea; not to be confused with its neighboring country the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Ghana aka “the gold coast” as you can figure out is known for gold. They are the second largest gold producing country in Africa.  The Ivory Coast is known for its religious and ethnic harmony. It boasts the world’s largest church, The Basilica of Our lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro. Last but not least, Mali is known for their historically great empires and salt mines. Researching all of these places I realized they have some similarities. French is the main language spoken in each of the countries largely due in part to colonialism from the France and Belgium. The Roman Catholic is the predominant religion in most of these countries except for Ghana and the Republic of Congo. Various denominations of Christianity are more common in these two countries. According to the CIA.gov all of these countries have high rates of AIDs, HIV and mortality, thus the majority of the population is made up of young people. Out of all the African countries connected to my bloodline, I found Benin to be the most interesting.

This journey into my ethnicity has been eye opening, intriguing and informative. My initial hypothesis was that exploring your ethnicity can be used as a pillar to give you a sense of belonging and completion, which can inadvertently raise your self-esteem. I can now say from my own experience, that digging deep into my ethnicity does make me feel more connected and complete. That question that lingered in my head for so many years is now answered.  Instead of just saying YES I am African, at least now I have some idea of which countries my descents were from. I guess now you can say I know what I’m reppin! I also know the buck doesn’t end with a DNA test and some online research. I plan to make plenty of trips to Africa to indulge and learn more first hand. The internet and media can be a source of research but we must beware of the narrative it depicts. The best way to know for sure is to experience firsthand, thus I am starting to plan my trip to Africa for 2021. I haven’t decided which country or countries I’ll visit first but I do know I will not be able to see all of them in one trip. I am confused as to which country I would like to visit first. If you know me I can be indecisive, so I want to ask for your help with making this decision. You down? If so, answer the poll below to help me figure out which country I should visit first.