Do You Know Your Roots?
Reflections on ancestry and our personal and national history
Meghan Markle, the Duchess of Sussex was in Nigeria over the weekend with her husband, Prince Harry, the Duke of Sussex. Their 3-day private visit was to promote the Invictus Games, an initiative the Prince founded to support the rehabilitation of wounded and sick service members and veterans, including Nigerian soldiers engaged in a 14-year conflict against Islamic extremists.
According to the Cable News Network (CNN), Meghan visited Nigeria as a Duchess and left as an African Princess. She was treated like a true daughter of the soil as all the stops were pulled out. The couple were welcomed by a cultural troupe and gifted traditional attire, and Meghan was even bestowed with new Nigerian names. The Obi of Onitsha named her “Ada Mazi,” meaning “the daughter of the Igbo ancestral palace” while the Oluwo of Iwo christened her “Adetokunbo” which means “royalty from across the seas.” Even Prince Harry had to thank all of his “in-laws” as the import of the welcoming sank in.
The significance of these attempts at establishing some connection with Nigeria can be traced to Meghan’s discovery of her ancestral roots. In October 2022, she announced on a podcast that she had found out through a DNA test, that she was “43% Nigerian”. Trust us Nigerians to capitalise on this information in some way hence the extra love and attention she received during her visit. According to Meghan at an event on women in leadership co-hosted by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Director-General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO): “It’s been eye-opening to be able to know more about my heritage. Never in a million years would I understand it as much as I do now. And what has been echoed so much in the past day is, ‘Oh, we are not so surprised when we found out you are Nigerian’,” she said at the event on women in leadership co-hosted by Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a Nigerian economist and head of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
I love anything relating to family history and ancestry especially when such history has been well documented. I eagerly seek out such stories as I find them quite fascinating and for this reason, Alex Haley’s “Roots” is probably my favourite book of all time. The author carefully laid out the history of his ancestors, Kunta Kinte being the focal point, from the Gambia as told and recounted through griots. He established a link from there through the transport of slaves to the United States, Kunta and his progeny’s history, all the way to himself. Imagine my joy watching the mini-series on television after reading the book.
“Homegoing” by Yaa Gyasi is another novel with a similar story pattern that I found beautifully well-written. It told the story of two sisters who were separated in childhood, one sold into slavery and the other, left in Ghana. Their descendants experienced life in different ways and eventually, each of the sisters’ progeny ended up reconnecting many years later without realising they were related.
Both books make me reflect on family trees and history. Who are we descended from? Who are our ancestors? What did they do? What experiences did they have? How did their lives and life choices influence ours today? Thinking about these questions also makes me reflect on the life and experiences of the average Black American, many of whom constantly seek to establish some connection with Africa. Many know that they are descendants of Africans who were either sold into slavery or found their way to the West, and they wonder about their ancestry. Some others go a step further and take genealogy tests which use DNA to identify one’s ancestry.
A sense of identity. That’s one of the things that one seeks when they do these tests. Everybody wants to know where they are from, and who they are related to and how. A sense of relationship. Many people want to connect with people who look like them and share history with them. Somewhere deep in their hearts, there’s a longing for home.
Ghana appears to have realised this with their annual homecoming ceremony. Tagged “Year of Return”, the first event held in 2019. It marked 400 years since the first arrival of African slaves stepped on American soil. That event attracted a lot of Ghanaians in the diaspora, Black Americans, and other Africans. Through carefully curated events and activities, attendees experienced Ghanaian cultures and lifestyles, visited notable tourist sites, and felt a little closer to home.
I recently visited “the bridge of no return” in Ikot-Abasi, Akwa-Ibom State and that was the first time I ever experienced slave history. The stories about how people were captured, sold into slavery, and transported abroad were quite riveting. I wondered how the families of the captured people lived after their loved ones went missing. Did they keep on living, hoping they would see them again or did they resign to fate?
I can’t help but think about how many people these days have grown up and are growing up without a sense of their family and national history. How much knowledge is being passed down the family tree? Not just knowledge but also languages and other cultural observances. History is very important as it connects the past with the present and it keeps us grounded. It reminds us that there is nothing new under the sun even when we seem to have the most complex issues. History, as a subject, has not been quite popular. It was even taken off the national curriculum at some point but thankfully, it’s made a re-entrance.
I belong to a Facebook group where people share nostalgic stories, pictures, and videos from the past. That group is a rich treasure trove of Nigerian history and it would be lovely to see all of the verified information shared there, archived somewhere publicly for posterity. There has even been the occasional biracial Nigerian who has attempted to trace their roots in Nigeria by sharing whatever details they have of their Nigerian parent who they most likely didn’t meet. Imagine what this is like nowadays with the increase in intercultural marriages.
Understanding our personal and national history is very important. If you are close to older people in your family, ask them questions about the family. You could even document your chats with these people. If they have any relics, document those too. Contribute to the body of knowledge on our history and someone somewhere will be grateful to you for this. We all have a role to play in preserving our history, let’s play our part. This is the way I see things today!
