Erica Linney: When I first joined the Turning Point team, we aired a story called Ghana Slave Castles. In this report former host Victor Oladokun retraced the steps of captured slaves from their holding cells to what was called the point of no return. From there hundreds of thousands of Africans were shipped out as cargo never to see their homeland again.

Since I saw that story some 10 years ago, I’ve always wondered, did my great- great- -great grandmother or grandfather walk that very trail, or did their journey of tears begin somewhere else? I thought I would never know, until one day I heard of an organization called African Ancestry. Using the miracle of modern-day science, African Ancestry is able to genetically trace the African ancestral roots of Black Americans down to the exact location and people group.  So a couple of months ago, I ordered a test kit from African Ancestry and took a DNA test to trace my maternal linage.

I travelled to the African Ancestry Headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland to meet with the co-founder and President, Gina Paige. As Gina and I got acquainted, I realized her passion is not only to help black Americans discover who they are, but also to encourage them to reach out to the continent of Africa.

Erica: Thank you so much for meeting with me to give me my personal results.  But before we get to that, what inspired you to start  African Ancestry?

Gina Paige: African Ancestry is really the culmination of a dream that my business partner, Dr. Rick Kittles, had.  He really just wanted to know where he was from. And once he was able to answer that question genetically, he focused on compiling a database of African lineages that would enable him to answer the question for himself, and ultimately we’ve now been able to do it for anyone who wants to know.

Erica: And so how did he go about, you know, collecting all of this information? Did he travel to each country?

Gina Paige: To collect the samples in our database, Dr. Kittles collaborated with researchers all over the continent of Africa to actually get DNA from indigenous Africans.  He also consulted with historians and anthropologists and linguists to make sure that he was sampling populations that contributed to the transatlantic slave trade.

Erica : Wow.  And so what is your hope for this company?

Gina Paige: Well, you know, our mission at African Ancestry is to transform the way people view themselves and the way they view Africa. And we want them to feel good about who they are and feel connected to a past, but also to become involved, to lobby, to educate, to invest, to give back to the continent because we are part of Africa’s brain trust.

Erica: Well, one thing I definitely came here for was to find out where I’m from. And I have to tell you, before you tell me the results, I have a feeling, and I said this on tape, that I believe I’m from Ghana.  I have no reason, it’s just in my heart, so I just want to know am I right or am I wrong. (LAUGHS)

Gina Paige: Well, let me tell you that we only looked at one branch of your family tree, so we looked at your mother’s- mother’s -mother’s line, and we didn’t find it in Ghana, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have any Ghanaian ancestry.  We’ll have to look at some of those other branches. We found your ancestry among the Balante people living in Guinea-Bissau today.

Erica:  Oh.

Gina Paige: And it’s really quite interesting because the word Balante stands for “those who resist.” So I don’t know if there’s any  of that in your personality, Erica.

Erica:  Just a little bit. No, you know, it’s funny because my grandmother, my great grandmother, my cousins, all of the females are very strong-willed. I’ll put it that way, strong-willed.  And so why do they call them “those who resist?”

Gina Paige: Well, they were very resistant to slavery, and it’s a very small country today, one of the first to be colonized by the Portuguese.  And the Portuguese had a very difficult time moving in because the people were so resistant.  And so that’s how they got that name, “those who resist.”

Erica Linney:  Wow, I’m from Guinea-Bassau.  I’ll have to go visit, because I never heard of Guinea-Bassau.

Gina Paige: I think that you represent a perfect example of why this work is so important because most of us don’t know any of the African countries.  And so you didn’t know Guinea-Bissau even existed, and now your horizon has been broadened. It just gives you a much broader sense of the continent of Africa and your place on that continent as a global citizen.

Erica Linney:  Yes, it does. I think for me, the big thing that really helps is, not that I’m not a difficult person, but I know at times I can be resistant to certain things when I know that it’s not right.  So, at least I know that is just in me and so I understand it and so now I won’t resist being resistant anymore. But, thank you so much.  I really appreciate it.

Gina Paige:  It was our pleasure.  I’m excited that you’re a part of the African Ancestry family now.

Erica:   Yes, woo-hoo.