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Motherland
2004 Gambia Roots Festival
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In
my mind’s eye, rather as if it were mistily being projected on
a screen, I began envisioning descriptions I had read of how collectively
millions of our ancestors had been enslaved. Many thousands were individually
kidnapped, as my own forebear Kunta had been, but into the millions
had come awake screaming in the night, dashing out into the bedlam of
raided villages, which were often in flames. The captured able survivors
were linked neck-by-neck with thongs into processions called “coffles”,
which were sometimes as much as a mile in length. I envisioned the many
dying, or left to die when they were too weak to continue the torturous
march toward the coast, and those who made it to the beach were greased,
shaved, probed in every orifice, often branded with sizzling irons;
I envisioned them being lashed and dragged toward the longboats; their
spasms of screaming and clawing with their hands into the beach, biting
up great choking mouthfuls of the sand in their desperation efforts
for one last hold on the Africa that had been their home; I envisioned
them shoved, beaten, jerked down into slave ships’ stinking holds
and chained onto shelves, often packed so tightly that they had to lie
on their sides like spoons in a drawer…
Flying homeward from Dakar, I decided to write a book. My own ancestors’
would automatically also be a symbolic saga of all African-descent people-who
are without exception the seeds of someone like Kunta who was born and
grew up in some black African village, someone who was captured and
chained down in one of those slave ships that sailed them across the
same ocean, into some succession of plantations, and since then a struggle
for freedom.
Alex Haley
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The
issue of identity and belonging was a key driver for the 230 volunteers
of Caribbean parentage which took part in the genetic journey.
 A
good starting point is learning from the Alex
Haley’s own personal experience in writing Roots and the discovery
of his ancestry. In Britain, Paul
Crooks undertook a similar journey in his book Ancestors in tracing
his family tree from Jamaica to Ghana
The
use of DNA technology is important for all nationalities and races but in
the context of how we define race as opposed to nation hood we still are
living in a world defined by the colour of our skin and not our culture,
heritage, language and our historical contribution to world history and
civilisation.
To
have a greater understanding of any DNA results we need to look at the
following historical evidence and sources below to gain a holistic picture
and perspective.
History
of Race and Sex Intermixing
Motherland
results and other future DNA results will identify a combination of Y
chromosome and mitochondria DNA with a European ancestry, although this
will probably range from 2% to a possible 25%, the issue we need to ask
ourselves is what is European ancestry? And could European ancestry already
have African DNA prior to slavery?
 The
historian and Journalist Joel Augustus
Rogers firmly held this view.
He
spent over fifty years of his life writing the history of race and sex
and black achievement from the Greek and Roman period up to the 20th Century.
His three
volume books Race and Sex provides a comprehensive history which provides
a useful context in understanding DNA and what is European, African, Chinese
and Indian ancestry. Research undertaken by genetics and anthropologists
support the evidence of African people being the first people on the earth
and have earliest form of civilisation
Transatlantic
Slave Trade Database
 Academics
are now able to construct information from the slave ships and other records
to potentially identify what part of America, South America and the Caribbean
that African slaves were transported. View related articles >>>
Useful links
Slavery Images
Data Base
www.homestead.com/wysinger/slaveryphotos1.html
The Volume and Structure of the Transatlantic Slave Trade: A Reassessment
by David Eltis
http://www.historycoop.org/journals/wm/58.1/eltis.html
African Political Ethics and the Slave Trade http://muweb.millersville.edu/~winthrop/Thornton.html
African Slavery
http://sankofabird.tripod.com/links.html
www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/ssrg/africa/history/hislavery.html
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| Heritage
Sites, Museums and Art Galleries
Travelling to Africa or the Caribbean in examining Heritage sites is important
in identifying buildings, monuments, artefacts and geographical and physical
environments. This helps to support evidence of settlement, migration
and achievement.
James Island, The Gambia
© Arno Misse, CRATerre-EAG, realised in the frame of the Africa
2009 programme (WHC,ICCROM,CRATerre-EAG) in collaboration with NCAC, the
National Council for Arts and Culture of The Gambia.
However, you will probably find more about Africa and the black historical
experience in major Museums and Galleries in Europe and North America.
(The Black and Asian Studies Association are organising a study day
on Saturday 15th March, 2003 to explore Black and Asian representations
in museums and galleries, click here
for more information).
Useful links
Afro Louisiana History and Genealogy
www.ibiblio.org/laslave/introduction.php
Cultural Celebration and Identity
 Attending
Cultural Events like the Roots Festival is important to appreciate cultural
history and heritage which is often passed down by oral history, custom,
dress, music, dance food and kinship and traditional ceremonies.
Cultural
events and ceremonies take place throughout the year in Africa, South
America, Caribbean, Oceania and in the Europe and North America.
International
Roots Festival >>>
Books and
Reference Material
To
have a real understanding of history and identity reading and talking
to people can be exciting, fun and challenging which is all about life
long learning and the university of life. The first university in the
world was in Timbuktu in Mali.
 Nubian
Jak Book of World of Facts Recommends the following Books
Things
Fall Apart by Achebe, Chinua
Great Negroes:Past and Present by Adams, Russell L
Afrikan Holistic Health by Afrika, Laila O.
Heal Thyself by Afua, Queen
Breaking The Chains Of Pyschological Slavery by Akbar, Na'im
I Know Why The Cage Bird Sings by Angelou, Maya
Yurugu by Ani, Marimba
More information on Nubian Jack >>>
Please email us at info@everygeneration.co.uk
for recommendations for other books and resources to be added to this
list. Also email us your
comments, view points and issues raised by Motherland. We will create
a notice board and pass your comments onto the BBC and Takeaway Media
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