- This test is so important for me
to take because I'm a handsome man.
And like, my genetics are so freaking strong, ladies.
You want your kids to look like me.
And I just wanna know where that comes from.
(upbeat music)
- So, I'm Key, and today,
we're gonna be finding out which African tribe we're from.
- I'm from Kansas City, Missouri.
At least that's where the colonizers brought me.
The little that I know about my family background
mostly comes from my mom's side.
On my dad's side, I don't know much
about where it comes from.
My dad's last name, it is Irish, I believe.
So, like, I don't know.
I don't know if that has anything
really to do anything other than like they were owned
by people from Ireland or something like that.
My grandfather on my mom's side,
he always told me that we were Nigerian,
and part Irish, too.
But he also was like a pathological liar.
(gentle music)
- Hi, my name's Kwesi James,
and I'm from Brooklyn, New York.
So, I'm lucky enough to know like
where my ancestors kind of come from.
My grandfather and my grandmother,
they were both from Trinidad and Tobago.
So, most of my family have like Caribbean roots.
And my mom was the first one
to come over to the United States.
So, I'm first generation American.
(lighthearted music)
- So, I was born in Memphis, Tennessee.
But I spent most of my time growing up in Arkansas.
Maternally, I know a few things.
One, I know that Williams is obviously a slave name.
That's like one of the biggest slave owner's name.
But I also know my grandmother's maiden name Boykin,
which I know was huge in South Carolina.
(lighthearted music)
- I don't know where I'm from.
It probably has to be Western Africa,
because like, I'm like a nerd for history.
- I honestly don't know.
I feel like it is shrouded in mystery.
One time I did this ancestry project in school,
and like all the other kids like,
oh, my family is from England,
or my family has direct ties to Russia, or like whatever.
And it was just weird for me
'cause I asked so many people in my family,
and a lot of them didn't even know.
And it's kind of sad 'cause like,
a lot of black people don't have that.
That ability to be like, yeah, this is where I'm from,
or I know exactly where we go.
And I feel like a lot of that was stolen from us.
- I texted two of my uncles, who I think are like--
They know most about everything
that happening in our family and our family history.
So, I texted them both.
And here was my eloquent solicitation
for more information on family history.
"Hey, y'all, I'm shooting a video tomorrow for work
"where I get my DNA tested to find out
"which African tribe I'm from
"via the new African Ancestry test.
"Do either of you guys know anything
"about where our family is from originally?
"The United States or outside of the United States?
"Or any idea where our folks were from before Arkansas?
"Any information helps, thank you."
So, I sent that long text to my uncle,
and his response, "Wakanda."
- Well, before I even get into this,
all like white people have to do this?
Do white people really trace back their family
like because of brutal slave trade?
- All right, so it says, better, bolder, blacker.
Choose African Ancestry, yes, here for all of this.
- I just wanna
♪ Rolly, rolly, rolly ♪
♪ Bring the girls to the party ♪
♪ Oh, got hair gel like ♪
- (slurps) Sounds like a Wednesday night in WeHo.
♪ All I ever wanted was a rolly, rolly ♪
♪ Wade in the water ♪
Negro spirituals.
♪ What, oh, yeah ♪
♪ Mm, mm, mm, mm, mm, mm ♪
- I wonder if our ancestors knew
that we were gonna be the way that we are,
would they still have done the things that they did?
- So, I filled out everything, I got the packet together.
I'm not gonna lick this stamp.
I'm gonna use a sponge and close this.
And I'm ready to find out
where my ancestors were stolen from.
(upbeat music)
- Hi, I'm Gina Paige.
I'm the president and cofounder of AfricanAncestry.com.
So, I'm in the business of being black.
I love sitting down with black people,
and telling them where they're from,
and sharing this transformative information.
So, I'm looking forward to the crew from BuzzFeed
to tell them where their roots are.
(gentle music)
- [Ryann] Hi, I'm Ryann.
- Hi, Ryann.
- [Ryann] Nice to meet you.
- Nice to meet you, too.
The test that you took
looks at one branch of your family tree.
- Okay. - Right.
So, you know you have two parents,
four grandparents, eight great grandparents.
- [Ryann] Math.
- [Gina] And it keeps going back, right?
- [Ryann] Yeah (laughs).
- We're only looking at one branch.
- Okay. - So, we looked at
your mother's mother's mother's mother's
mother's line. - Whoa.
- And that goes back 500 to 2,000 years.
So, when we trace paternal line,
we use what's called the Y chromosome.
- Right. - That's what
you inherited from your father.
He got it from his father, and his father, and his father.
Well, during the history of slavery,
white men were having brown babies more often.
So, let's say a British slave holder
fathers a son with an enslaved Nigerian woman.
The son's gonna be black, right?
- Right, right.
- He's gonna have black sons
who have black sons who have black sons.
Whether they look like me or you.
The Y chromosome goes back to the British man.
- So, that would like divert where the lineage goes.
- So, it's going to be your European, not African.
And that's no surprise, we know that history.
- Right, right, right.
- So, white women we're having--
- Brown babies. - Brown babies.
As often as white men.
So, that's why we see African ancestry
more often on the maternal line.
So, your results are actually a little unusual.
- (gasps) Oh, God.
- And that's because we found matches for you
in several different countries.
- Whoa, whoa. - They're all African.
- Okay, good. - So, you're African.
- (laughs) Yes.
- You're part of the family. (laughs)
But we found your results in four countries,
most of which were part of the Mali Empire.
One country that we found your ancestry in
has a group of people called Jola people.
And they are in Guinea-Bissau today.
- Guinea-Bissau.
- So, that's one of the smallest countries
on the west coast of Africa.
We found your same DNA signature
among people who are Mandinka.
The Mandinka are the Grio of the culture.
And the Grios are the keepers of the culture.
So, through music and song,
they tell the history of families
in the different Senegalese communities.
So, they're from Senegal. - That's cool.
That's cool.
- So, the Mandinka are also known as warriors.
- Okay. - Which leads me
to the next group that you share ancestry with,
which is the Mende. - The Mende.
- The Mende people in Sierra Leone today.
- Okay. - And the Mende
are known as those who were on the Amistad.
Basically, the enslaved Africans on the ship
refused to be captured. - Yes.
- And they turn the ship around.
- I've always like thought back to like--
'Cause I'm very good at directions.
Like, I can go somewhere once,
and I'm like, oh, I can get back.
Like, I just have that innate sense.
And thinking about being a warrior,
I've always like considered myself,
like we lived like in a society
where we didn't have like electronics,
and like things that like tell us where we're going,
I would just be like a gatherer or a warrior
'cause I know where I'm going.
- So, then, this is crazy because I haven't met you before.
Like, five minutes ago. - Right.
- We didn't plan this. - No.
- But the last group that you share ancestry with
were the Coastal People in south eastern Liberia.
And they were sailors.
- That is weird (laughs).
- Not only were the sailors,
but they were very resistant to enslavement.
And the British often wouldn't enslave them,
but instead would have them navigate the ships.
I'm just saying. - That's really cool.
- I'm not making this up.
- I'm very excited to just like,
to be able to pinpoint where my people are from,
and like also have a lot
of historical context of who I am as a person.
I mean, I knew obviously your DNA
holds a lot of like secrets to who you are,
but I didn't realize how specific it would be.
To like know these tribes and these groups of people
make up part of my personality,
or part of the talents and abilities that I have.
There's a level of understanding I have now
that makes me so much more excited
than I ever thought I would've been.
So, thank you. - You're welcome.
- [Ryann] I'm so, so appreciative.
- Welcome to the African Ancestry family.
- Yes (laughs). (gentle music)
- [Kwesi] Hi.
- Hi, Kwesi (laughs).
- What's going on, how's it going?
- Nice to meet you. - Hi.
My whole family's waiting on these results.
- Really? - Mm-hmm.
- So, I was really excited when I saw
that your people were from Trinidad,
'cause that helps to give us some variety,
and to spread the word that, yeah,
it's great to be Trini, but guess what?
It's great to be from wherever before Trinidad, too.
- [Kwesi] For sure, for sure.
- We found your ancestry in Africa.
- Right. - Which is great.
- (laughs) Okay.
- The first country, the group that you share ancestry with
has the secret societies called Poro societies.
And they're where men raise boys up.
They initiate them into manhood.
- Whoa. - And so,
there's this whole set of culture,
almost cultural practices, almost like a rites of passage.
- Yeah. - That Temne
boys go through in Sierra Leone.
- Wow. - As they become men.
So, I really want you to look into that.
- I'm like on some warrior type joint.
(both laugh)
Yo, this is crazy.
- And there's another thing that you'll see
connects you in this whole BuzzFeed crew.
This theme of resistance. - Yeah.
- Because the Temne People were also
resistant to enslavement. - Right.
That rebel spirit, I feel it in me.
I mean, it's even hard for me to work a nine to five.
(laughs) You know, to be held down like that.
- Well, there's another group that you share ancestry with.
- From my father's side?
- No, on your mother's side still.
- Oh, on my mother's side still?
- So, we found two groups that you share ancestry with.
So, not just the Temne in Sierra Leone.
But there's another group called the Balanta People.
And guess what Balanta means.
- I don't know.
- It means those who resist. - Wow (laughs) wow.
- So, when Portuguese came,
and colonized this very tiny country called Guinea-Bissau,
- Yeah. - They were met
with a lot of resistance by the Balanta People.
- 'Cause they weren't having it either.
- Wow, if anyone knows me,
everyone knows I'm super rebellious.
Yeah, like, naturally.
I almost can't help it. - Yeah.
And see, that's the beauty of learning
the specific groups and countries
that you have connection to genetically.
- Wow, wow, you're changing the world, man.
(laughs) Oh, my goodness. - One Kwesi at a time.
- [Kwesi] Oh, man (laughs), man.
- [Key] Hello.
- [Gina] Hi.
- [Key] I'm Key.
- Nice to meet you, Key. - Nice to meet you.
I'm super excited about this.
- Good. - I don't know
anything about my family.
- We exist to help you better
understand who you are. - Yeah.
- That's the only reason we're here.
- Yeah. - Is because you deserve
to know where you're family was
before Mississippi and before Arkansas.
There was this disconnection.
And, Key, you know, that makes us
the original victims of identity theft.
- That's real.
- We're the very first ones. - Yeah.
- We lost our names, we lost our languages,
we lost the freedom to honor our ancestors,
and our families were torn apart.
So, if you don't know your name,
you can't speak your language, you can't talk to your god,
and you don't know where your brothers and sisters are,
or who they are, then how can you know who you are?
- Yeah, yeah.
- So, we found your ancestry among people in two countries.
- Okay, two countries? - Mm-hmm.
- Got ya.
- And the first group that you share ancestry with,
those people are known as nomads.
You'll find that they've traveled
all across, all across Africa.
All across West Africa.
You'll find them in probably six
or seven different West African countries.
- Wow. (gentle music)
- Like I said, they were nomads,
so they moved with their cattle from place to place.
They were often traders
because they had to negotiate in each new place.
And the women are considered
the most beautiful women in Africa.
- Oh, yes. - Which makes you my cousin.
Because I share maternal ancestry with the same group
in a different country but the same group.
So, you share maternal genetic ancestry with the Fula,
or Fulani People. - Sounds familiar.
- Yeah, so there are Fulani People who live in Nigeria.
That's my ancestry.
They are Fulani People who live in Cameroon,
who live in Mali, who live in Senegal,
and in your country of Guinea-Bissau.
Isn't this crazy? - Yes.
- Guinea-Bissau. - Just like Kwesi, yeah.
- And Ryann. - Oh, yeah.
Look, we're all related.
- But you all have different people.
- Yeah, and like the nomad thing makes so much sense.
Look, every couple of months,
like this unrest happens in me.
I'm like, something has to change.
And I feel like that's just
a part of the nomad inside of me.
- And then, there's this theme going on here today.
And I swear, you will acknowledge,
I have never met you guys before.
- Yeah, yeah, no.
- I didn't know anybody about any of you.
But this team here, there is something about you all.
And the Mende and Temne are from Sierra Leone.
- That's crazy. - Let me tell you
something I didn't tell the others.
- Oh. - So (laughs).
Sierra Leone is known for rice production.
So, Sierra Leoneans are outstanding rice farmers.
The planters in South Carolina
and Georgia at the rice plantations,
they specifically got enslaved labor from Sierra Leone
because of their ability-- (bell rings)
(gentle music)
Farm rice. - Whoa.
- So, that's why when we are talking
about where you all are from,
I was listening to see if anybody
was from South Carolina or Georgia
because we get a lot of people.
So, that whole Gullah Geechee culture.
- Yeah. - Is directly connected.
- Wow.
- To the people of Sierra Leone.
- Whoa. - Yeah.
And we've already been through the resistance.
The Mende were not having enslavement.
The Temne were not having enslavement.
They turned the ships around.
- That's what I like to hear.
Being quiet and not saying anything is just like not me.
- That's not what's gonna happen.
- Wow. - So, yes.
So, I wanna welcome you to the African Ancestry family.
- I love this. - Good.
- Same as Kwesi, I don't have my diploma either.
It's packed up in a box somewhere.
But this is gonna be hanging up somewhere in my apartment.
- You got some great women, strong women, leaders.
- I'm so interested in it.
- Doctor Dorothy Height was Temne.
Doctor Maya Angelou. - Whoa.
Coretta Scott King.
- [Key] Wow.
- India.Arie, you got some women
that share a very powerful ancestry with you.
- That's so cool like hearing about Coretta Scott King
because I know they like spent a lot of time in Memphis.
And that's where Martin Luther King was assassinated.
And I was born in Memphis, too.
So, that like little tiny connection
is like super cool to have.
And also, just hearing about like the Fula women.
Like, I wanna like read up about 'em.
I don't know, just like learn more.
- See, isn't she pretty? - Aw, cousins (laughs).
- My cousin, my cousin.
- Thank you so much for this.
- You're welcome.
- This is like my very first DNA test ever.
And I just didn't wanna take one.
It was gonna be like, oh, you're European.
'Cause I'm like, I already know this happens.
- [Gina] This is something you need.
You know, this isn't a novelty.
This isn't just nice to know.
This is a need to know, and now you're gonna share.
You just said you have to share it.
- [Key] Yeah.