This program aired last Sunday in England on BBC. We in the States are supposed to be able to view it if BBC World Service or BBC News International is availble via satellite TV.(I don't have satellite so if anyone can enlighten me on the availablity of these channels it would be appreciated) I was told it was quite interesting. The best part is supposed to be when they reunited a black British woman with actual blood relatives in Equitorial Guinea by connecting their DNA.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/genes/dna_detectives/african_roots/case_studies.shtml African roots case studiesAll 229 participants in the study have the results of their DNA tests, shedding light on where in Africa their ancestors might have come from. But three lucky individuals with particularly interesting stories got the chance to travel back to their roots. One of them experienced a historic reunion with her blood relatives, while another learnt the uncomfortable truth about the part his own people played in slavery. The journeys challenged all of their personal identities and opened their eyes to the Africa of their ancestors.
Mark Anderson 24-year old Mark from South London calls himself Black British, but has never felt at home in Britain. He works in the music business for a black record label.
Mark's dream was to discover that he descends from a line of great African chiefs, with his long lost relatives waiting for him to reclaim his kingdom. More realistically, he thought he might find that his ancestors came from Ghana or Nigeria.
He was totally thrown when he found out that his Y chromosome traced to Europe not Africa. "Until now I thought Europeans and their history had nothing to do with me."
To his great relief, scientists in Washington found that Mark's mitochondrial DNA does trace to Africa. It matches that of the Kanuri people of Eastern Niger, on the edge of the Sahara.
When Mark met the Kanuri people he felt that it was the most amazing day of his life. But he was forced to see a different side to the slave trade story. He discovered that the most likely reason for his ancestors capture and sale was that the Sultan of Zinder, a fellow Kanuri, acquired his wealth and power by selling his own people.
Beaula McCalla Beaula is a youth worker from Bristol who teaches black children about African culture. She thinks of herself as African first and foremost and wants to find out more about what it means to be African.
Beaula has always felt a close connection with her African ancestors. She saw the 'Motherland' project as an opportunity to return 'home' and reconnect with the Africa of her ancestors before slavery.
When Beaula's mitochondrial DNA was tested, scientists found 8 people in the global database with mitochondrial DNA that matches hers exactly. These people, from the tiny island of Bioko, off the coast of Cameroon, are effectively her blood relatives.
Beaula took a trip to Bioko, where she was reunited with Beatriz and Consuelo, two of the people her DNA was matched to, for the first time reuniting an African Caribbean slave descendent with living African relatives.
Beaula relished the experience of returning to her motherland, but didn't want to stay there. "To know where my home is, is enough. I can go back whenever I like. I don't need to be here."
Jacqueline Harriott Jacqueline is a schoolteacher from Peterborough. Before taking part in the study she felt no connection with Africa and was interested in finding out more about her European ancestry.
She wanted to get to the bottom of the sketchy family stories that she's been told and to find out more about who she is and who her family are.
Genetic tests revealed that she is as much as 28% European and 72% African. This makes her more than twice as European as the average person in the 'Motherland' study. This genetic evidence inspired her to consult archives in a Jamaican public records office, where she was able to pinpoint her European and African ancestors. She discovered that her female slave ancestor was made pregnant by her European slave-owning ancestor.
At first she was delighted by the amount of European ancestry she has. But after she visited the sugar estate where her two ancestors met, she became increasingly aware of the intolerable conditions in which the slaves worked and she underwent a transformation. "When I first got the results back, I was pleased to see that I had European roots. But I take that back. I am quite happy to have my African line acknowledged."
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