Our African Ancestry

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Jay dot M, a production of I Heart Radio. Hello everybody, what's up? Peace y'all? This is Jill Scott with my sister friends, Asa Graydon Danceler. Hello, I'm the lovely Lovely Las same. You don't just feel like blessed? That calls hard blessed. We're gonna work on it. It was hard because it's early here, so it would have been really back. And remember back in the dead we ACTI screaments from the bathrooms when y'all was performing, it sounds came from there. It was friends and there was a Lulu Lulu as well. Right, that's another tribe, I think. Listen, there's a lot of tribes in the Mother Continent. There are a lot of tribes. There are a lot of countries. There are a lot of weathers. There a lot of the amazing reals, a lot of languages, a lot of a lot. And today we're gonna find out where we come from. Okay, we're gonna find out about us friends, friends. This is something that I know a lot of people have been interested and curious about for a long time about who they are. You know, we've got all these questions coming from this place and we don't have those opportunities. We know our people come from North Carolina, South Carolina. But but that's what that's about it. That's as far as it goes. But today we're gonna find out where us three ladies, well us three women come from, and hopefully it will inspire you to want to find out yourself. Yeah, welcome, welcome, Welcome to j dot il the podcast and we are here with Miss Gina Page, the Queen, the wen, the beauty. Yes she does. Eyes are bright, eyes are special as sweet. We like it. I love. I love that a queen is responsible for helping us find our roots, like I just I love that ancestry. Thank you for the welcome. I'm happy to me here. It's not often I get to reveal the ancestries of three other queens at the same time. So this is exciting. Yeah, it really is. And you know, I do want us to make sure that we mentioned that we did all this via African ancestry, and they have always keep saying Gina, Yes, Gina's company African alling. So Gina, please give the listeners like a little bit of background on African ancestry and what makes them like so special as opposed to some of these other you know situations. So there are a lot of things that make African Ancestry dot com special, UM, that make us different, UM, that makes us the best at what we do. Uh. The first one is that we're guided by the ancestors. Look at our name, African Ancestry, So right there off the break, you know that we're special. We are black owns, black founded, black funded, We are all Our entire scientific team is black scientists, our chaff is all black people, and we are in the service of black people. So that makes us special, different and the best. We exist to help black people transform the way we view ourselves and the way we view Africa, and we're the only company that does that. We're able to do that because we have the largest collection of African DNA in the world period, and so we are able to give very specific information to black people. You already said it. We know we're from North Carolina, we know we're from Haiti, we know we're from the d R, we know we're from Brazil. But where were we from before that? We know it's Africa. That's not the question. We started off talking about. How there's you know, thousands of everything in Africa, so we're specifically in Africa do we come from. That's where African ancestry dot com does. And then last, but certainly not least in today's times, we're the only company that destroys your DNA. So we have left a lot of wealth on the table by not keeping our customers d N a thank you. We don't sell it, we don't share it, we don't we don't research it, we don't do any we we figure out your ancestry and then it's destroyed. And would you basically be one of these only companies that does that. We are the only company that does that. So those are those are some of the many ways that respected in different take that all the way because it's just so hard for black people, you know, or you know, people who could see themselves and be black, to be you know, to to feel like we're dealing with people who have some sort of conscience, that have some sort of morality, to have some sort of you know, uh, ethical standards, standards as as it pertains to us. So rarely do we come in contact with with companies or people who have an ability to make money who deal with us ethically. So that is amazing. And you know, even though as amazing as it is, you know, I'm not surprised that it comes from the mind of who ladies, excuse me, excuse me, a d C black woman. Can we talk about you for a second, because I would love to know how you became in such super service of black people, Like what's your background, where you come from? Why you want to do this for us? It's you know, that's a great question. And I started. I really just fell into it, to be honest. My business partner is a renowned geneticist and African American geneticist, Dr Rick Kittles, who focuses on the genetics of black people. That's his life's work. And so my background is business. I have a degree in economics, I have an m b A. I've worked for Fortune five hundred companies pushing Frozen Pies and Sarah Lee and you know, Pamela Dish Liquid at Colgate, Pamala. But never never was able to really talk to the people who I think are important. And so when I talked when I met Dr Kittles, he had this ability to tell people where they were from. But he's a researcher, not a business person. So meeting him and making the decision to partner to commercialize his research was for me the coming together of the skill set that my parents and I had invested in for many, many years, the talents that I had accumulated over time, to do something that has never existed before. So the other thing that I didn't mention about us being different is that we're the first to do this for black people. In February will be nineteen years old as at and so nineteen years ago, nobody was checking for black people. There were two other companies in the marketplace, and they just oh, by the way, you're from Africa. That's what they told you. So was it? This is something brand news never existed. It's not like a new form of dessert. You know how many new desserts are there. You can put a brownie in a bite, you can put it right, exactly right, But y'all had been at the goddamn brownie or you know, we have our music on our phones now used to be uh an iPod, and before that was a CD player, and before that was but there's no music is a new This never existed before February. To my first two thousand three, you had no way of knowing which people in Africa you come from. So and then I got to do it for the people that I'm passionate about. So that's my path to African ancestry. I think was a journey unfolding that I didn't realize what's happening. Beautiful, so beautiful. You know, the three of us, we've been talking about this for weeks. Okay, we've been talking about this for weeks, and we're like, what are we gonna do if we find out, you know, something we don't want to find out. What we're gonna do, Like how we're gonna you know, you know, like me could be less black than we think we are. Gina, have you had some situations like that where people are like, so listen, nobody, Oh, as black folks in the diaspora is a hundred percent African, not one of us. Whether you look like Wesley Snipes or whether you look like Maria Carey, there's European in your family tree. We just don't always know where it comes in. We don't know where to find it. And so the average black person is about a quarter European. We just don't know it. And so, yeah, there are times the whole all that what is that doing for me? Right now? Though I ain't gonna obeate here, like what is that doing? I do can't even see it whatever? Yeah, and and so you can't see it, you don't know about and I'm sure we'll talk about identity. That's you know, that's a whole conversation too, that's related to this work. So my point is is that we have a hundred people. Ninety two of them are gonna come back with an African result the test, you guys to six of them are going to come back with the European result, and two of them are gonna come back with something that's either Native American or Middle Eastern. Those are just those are the chances as in the majority, right, No, just okay, So let me You want me to tell you exactly about the test you took, yes, cattle, hell y, yes, please. So you all took the test we call the man at your clan test, which means we traced your maternal lineage. That means we traced your mother's mother's mother's mother's mother all the way back five hundred to two thousand years ago. You have two parents, you have four grandparents. We only looked at one of those four. We looked at your mother's mother's line. You got it. So what we find that's what your mother's line is. That doesn't mean that's all of what you are, because there's still thousands of other branches of your tree. We only look at one. But the one we look at has the DNA of that four mother that you'll never know her name. M You won't know her name, you won't know her contributions to the community. You won't know a lot of things about her, but you have her DNA in the DNA that you have from her. It didn't get it didn't mix with anybody else in the family tree. I don't know. We're gonna thank you. My internal DNA is what full every cell in our body, so we don't have to know her name. We have her DNA, and she is the reason that we are who we are as these women. That's what we looked at for you, ladies. We're excited and and I who's going first? Who's going first? Look like, let's just go right? That is that the only kind of you said? That's the test. We took what you guys provide others, So thank you. I'm sorry you don't know. You're absolutely right, because there's also the paternal side, correct exactly. We have another test called the Patrick Clan test, and that test traces father to father, to father, to father to father or back. But here's the rub. Women can't take that test. So men and women can take the maternal test, because we all inherited that same DNA from our mother, and then as mothers, you've passed it to your children, whether you have daughters or sons. Right with the paternal lineage, we use the Y chromosome, and that is only inherited by males, so it's passed from father to son, father to son, father to son. So if you if as a woman you want to know about your paternal line, we need your brother, your father, your uncle, some male or not your son, no, because your son has his father or his father. So I need to call you soon because truth be told, my father's line is actually stops. And with my uncle, who is the last of the male gradens from my dad's you know, in terms of like his family, in terms of who came from that mother, right then the same father, the same mother and father. My dad has passed. I don't have any well, I do have one brother, but I don't even know how to find him, and my uncle is still living, so I have to get him to y'all quick. Here's the other thing. So remember I said, if we test a hundred people with the maternal test, ninety two of them are going to be African, have an African result. They're all gonna be African, but have an African result. If we test a hundred men and look at their paternal line, only sixty to sixty five of them are going to have an African result, that makes sense, and the rest are gonna have a European without. That makes sense because if you think about why we all have European in us because of right that that father line, that paternal line, eventually that becomes right. So if I uh, if a British slaveholder father's a son with an enslaved let's say an enslaved Nigerian woman, the son is gonna be black. He's gonna have black sons who have black sons who have black sons. But his white chromosome is going to go back to his British father. And white men were having brown babies much more often than white women were. Okay, well, let me ask you this. My father recently passed, but he was adopted, so I'm kind of out of luck her. Yeah. Yeah, And a lot of a lot of black women find themselves in a position where they can't trace their put turn online, either because they are themselves adopted, or because they don't have any relationship with their father's family, or they don't know who their father's families are. So you're not alone in that um limitation. But you can always look at other lines on your mother's side, because your mother has a father's mine that makes up part of who you are. And so there there are other avenues top house. So it's at least like four or five different angles to come at this thing. Yeah, the branches of our family tree increase exponentially each generation. You go from four grandparents to eight great grandparents to sixteen great grades and so in theory, you know, as long as there's someone living who's on that lineage, you could find out about any branch of the tree. Wow, DNA is amazing. We'll be back after the break, Okay. So Layah is literally like her, she's bursting, So can we do Laya's first. I'm gonna be the pride of my family. I don't even understand, right, like, we get this news, we can tell how our cut like, they ain't even they be like how you know? Like I was on my family Zoom a couple of months ago and told everybody. I was just like, y'all we found out, and that's nuty I lineage. You guys have taken the test and you get to share the exact same result with so many family members. They don't have to take it because you've taken it, because they ain't the same. Yeah. We got together on my nana's birthday and we were all talking about this, and I said, hey, y'all have news. I have news. I just wrote down. I just wrote down. What is Jill Scott out? Get my notes? I didn't even get my notes. Get your get your notes, a pistol and paper. Come home, Margaret Mires will be so st Clair go first, you can and St Clair you can go first. Let's find out. Okay, I'm y'all know, I'm stuck in my corner. I can't find okay already, what do you know about your mother's mother's mother's people? How far back can you go? I can just go back to my grandmother's mother rose up pulling who I know on a store and it's from Kentucky. But they came to St. Louis And well, that's that's a lot. That's more than many people. So we know that Mama Rosa was in Kentucky. Yeah, I think, so the story is I think we think it's Kentucky. Okay. So the DNA that you inherited from your mother and Mama Rosa and her mother and her mother doesn't start in Kentucky. It starts on the west coast of Africa. And um, we found matches for your ancestry in two countries. The first country is the people from this country are rice farmers, and they were taken from this country specifically to rice plantations in South Carolina and Georgia, and there the culture remained intact. So today you can travel to South Carolina and and meet people who practice many elements of the same culture that you share ancestry with. Exactly. So you we found identical matches with your DNA among men date people living in Cira Leone today. And what's exciting on on a whole another level about that, like is that Cira Leone is the first country to offer citizenship to its descendants based on their DNA results. So or November twenty one, I'm going with thirty people and they're going to get citizenship. Remember all the conversations that we had about finding another place that there's a there's another play for everybody, and it may be places, but legitimately like yeah, St Clair, you can go to see Era leone and get citizenship. Don't always ran different with me, sever Leon. I'm just saying that is so awesome. Oh so, and Rice Girl, rice plantations, ma'am, your people are so resilient. Expectancy for enslaved people on rice plantations was only about seven years. It is some of the most dangerous work in all of plantation work rice plantations. So the fact that your people came here specifically for that and they survived it to make you girl. On my dad on my dad's side, my my grandmom and my dad's I was born in nine hundred, so we fully know that she was She was eeechy like she came from Carolinas to New York. So it's just shocking that it's the same thing on my mother's side. And to be honest, my grandmother was always anti Carolina people. So I'm just laughing at her in a way because I'm like, I was like, grand mommy, we had it. She just wore was canna tell you us a grandmama. I can't swept people from Carolina, well, well people from Carolina, the other country that you share ancestry with. I thought this was fitting for you as a producer that helps to tell stories. You share ancestry with the Mandinka people living in Senegal today, and the Mandinka of course you probably I know, Asia probably knows this, right are the grios of the culture. So they helped to keep the oral history of the community and that very aligned with the work that you're doing managing and producing all these stories. No accidents, no mistakes, none. So welcome to the African ancestry family, Liah, thank you, Thank you for having me. Gina, I am Mendy and Mendici Mandinka Mandinka Mandinka. I think I got it. This is the best part of of what I do by far, because we don't know you all talked about this. We don't know who we are, and there are all these influences that tell us who we are from the minute we come into the world. We come into the world, somebody's baby girl, somebody's grand baby, someone's little sister, whatever it is, right, and then as we move through life, we have all of these influences that helped to form and shape our content sently evolving narrative of self. But what we don't have is the root. And so when you don't have the root, you you just you can succumb to whatever people tell you, whatever they want to make you think you should be and who you should be. But when you know where you're come from and you can get specific to these cultural details, the foods, the music, the language, the spiritual beliefs, the values. Now, Genial and Gina, this is crazy because my braids. For the last twenty years, I've been going to the same Brave and spot in Largo, Maryland. I don't care where I am. And the majority of the ladies in there are from Syenegal, and we're always talking about Senegal, and I was like, you gotta come to this country. We're gonna show you all this, and I always felt something a little club. I don't know, it's just I can't wait to go back to them, be like guests, like y'all, I know we're family, but we really don't think like I think. I'm so excited like that. I said, no, no, start showing my name, but shout out to everybody at Radley's beautiful. Okay, I'm sorry Asian. Yeah, I said, I'm I'm I am. This is so beautiful. Yeah, I want to know me, but this this has just been that's that's wow. You look different boom, but its aca. Yeah, we're faying out. Yes, yes, baby, bring the fan out. We'll be right back. Age, Agia, Agia, what do you know about the fabulous women that gave rise to you and your lineage? I know that my nano is from Virginia and that her mother was from Virginia, um specifically Loudon County. And the kind of sad part about my grandmother's mother was that she was raised by a woman who wasn't her biological mother. So when I looked for information about her family on my grandmother's grandmother's side, it kind of stops because we don't know who her mother was. So we know a lot about her father though. So that's it. Loudon County, Virginia, Virginia, all right. So for you, we traced your maternal lineage and we went back five two thousand years and we found your maternal ancestry outside of Africa. And when we find ancestry outside of Africa, we're not able to pinpoint specific countries. And that is because African DNA is very heterogeneous. Like if you line up ten African women, nine of them are going to have different DNA signatures. If you line up ten European women, only five of them are going to be different, and five of them are going to be the same. So we can't say if your signature looks like this your French, or if your signature looks like this your Italian, because it basically all looks the same. And so for you, we found your ancestry in what's called a European Haplo group, which is really just a group of genetic lineages that have a common ancestry. And we know that the origin. While the matches found in Europe today, the origin is believed to be south West Asian. Can you see it? Yes, populations migrated over time, so today that population is found in Europe. Before that it was found in Southwest Asia. And then if you go back about eighty two, a hundred thousand years ago, it was found in Africa. But what we're answering is the question of where were your people before the slave trade? And so yours were found in Europe and so based on your family story, it makes me wonder what the story was about your grandmother's grandmother and why she had to be raised by someone who wasn't a family member. And I wonder if ancestry had something to do with it. Um. I mean, there's a lot of European blood there that I know about because it's heavily documented. So my grandmother's father had one European parent, so her father's line is heavily documented, her mother's, Like I said, not so much. What I think. It's beautiful though about this, even though it's not what you wanted to hear. Honestly, I want to cry really badly, but I'm not going to. But I knew it was gonna be me. That's the funny part. That's why I was. I just knew it was gonna be me. Well, I'm gonna I'm gonna say this. Let me offer this to you, agent Inta. You know, I gotta go there. Um. I ended up meeting with the Basado people and they all look like Asian black people. They were very little people, but their facial features, all of it just looked very Asian. And they're the last tribe in Butuana, if like free tribe you know, to be themselves in Butuana, they all look Asian. So I just assumed when I looked at them, I was like, Okay, this is this is where Asia began because dang I mean dang, yeah, true Asiatic and Asian people are I mean the way populations migrated. So we go back a hundred thousand years or more. Civilization began in East Africa, and then there was a migration out of East Africa into what we call the Middle East right now. So now you had a sub segment of Africans that populated the Middle East, and then those populations migrated and spread into Europe and Australia, and then the migration continued across Asia. So that's why we see African presence in Asia because they are that everybody is a descendant of the original African people. But what this means is simply that there was a a non African woman are likely European woman on your maternal line. It is not a testament to anything else about you except for that she was there. It is a woman always up in our ship, sucking it up. I'm sorry, No, it's just about just knowing. Now you don't know and because and and and no slight to white folk. But because y'all ship ain't specific, I still don't know well our ship the gena. How could Asia continue her journey since it's not an African root of place? Like? What what would you say she could do to find out more about what? Well? On that same line, I think it's going to be pretty difficult. The only we will actually in your results information A just share with you some more information about this Haflow group UM, so that you can see more than what I've said here on the broadcast. The only thing other thing that I could think about, and it's not something that I think you'd be excited about them, is taking a test where you can compare your DNA to the DNA of other people, and then you'd be looking for genetic matches among people living today. Two, perhaps fill in some genealogy blanks based on your genetics. So for example, if you my mother did this, she was looking for her grandmother information about her grandmother, so she found other people who shared my mother's genetics, and they were able to give information that they knew about the family to help my mother piece together a picture of her grandmother. But that requires UM putting your DNA into a system that you have no control over. So I'm not suggesting that you do that necessarily. I'm just telling you that that would be an avenue that yeah, I mean, I think mostly it's just about for me. I don't think I would do that, but it's just about kind of accepting the kind of UM. And it's like you said, this is not necessarily something doesn't happen to people, but just the whole idea that you have to again accept the not knowing and that you know, having the possibility of knowing and then the not knowing again is a little bit painful. But what I can help you now you talked about your your uncle, and so what we can do is we can send a metro clan test, the same test that you took to your uncle, and then he would trace your paternal grandmother's line and again there's a nine chance that that lineage will be found in Africa. So I'm happy to do that as another opportunity to explore your African well thank you. That makes me feel happy. But just for all your people that's listening out there, For any haters out there, I'm still black. Don't play with me in the streets. Do not even think about hitting me on these socials and talk slot out the side of your mouth, because I'm black as black as black could be. I don't give a shoot what that test say, about what that tests say. And may God blast the white woman that jumped into my line, you know, may God bless her because it has she not done it. You know, hey, we still we still thank God for for whoever is there, whoever survived, whoever did would need it to be done. And also honor and respect to the woman who raised my great grandmother and um, you know, and took good care of her so that she could survive and so that we could all be so more conversation after the break. Now I'm scared. Oh my god, I'm skirted. Okay, So don't I just say, God damn, why they got to be the ha blow group? That just sounds like the raggedy side group of the hat blows. Really, Okay, I'm sorry I had to throw that out there. I'm sorry. I'm still I'm still here. I'm still healing. I'm sorry. Go ahead, Jill, go ahead. Oh boy, you ready missed Jill. So tell me what you know about your mother's mother's mother's people. The only thing that I know is that they were in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, and that they were sharecroppers before it. And I know that you've at least been to one African country, but have you traveled to any other countries on the continent? Just too okay? And when you were it was Botswana and what was the other one? South Africa? Okay? And so when you were there, did you have experiences Like so many people have told me that people thought, oh, you have to be here. They saw you know, they say, you look like my cousin, you look like my Yeah. I saw a lot of people that look like my people like look like my aunt Shirley. I was like, oh my god, you got lips just like myne Shirley. Because there was a different kind of skin on the lip, you know what I mean, It was a different skin on the lip. I was like, dang, I thought that was just unique to her. We we are definitely a unique people in our features and our beauty. And we found your maternal genetic ancestry and one of the smallest present day countries in Africa. So I want to be clear that everyone understands that we are aware that these country borders are artificially and politically drawn, and what we're doing is telling you the present day country and people that you share ancestry with. So the country that you share ancestry with today is tiny. It's on the west coast of Africa. You know, it was one of the only countries that speaks or it is one of the only countries where Portuguese is a major language. Mhm, it was there you go. The country is called Guinea Bissau. Heard of it, and Guinea Bissau is bordered by Guinea, it's bordered by Senegal. And the people of Guinea Bissau what somebody you may be familiar with, Actually I'm in car Cabral. He was an activist and he was very instrumental in Guinea Bissau fighting for its independence. So he's a well known figure freedom fighter from Guinea Bissau. The people that you share ancestry with in Guinea Bissau are called the Jola people, and the Jola are found even more in Senegal and the Gambia than they are in Guinea Bissau, So you have a wide expanse of people even though the ones that you match with specifically live in Guinea Bissau today and um, the Jola women. I did a little research on the Jola women and one of the things I learned about them is that they have these work songs, which are often considered to be story songs that they sing while they're working. They're very short, very concise. They might just be two lines, and each type of woman, like the married women, they sing together and they have their stories. It might be about you know, cheating or gossip. And then the single women they have their types of stories that they talk about. But the stories that they tell are uniquely tied. I've been using that word a lot today. Um are specifically tied to their identities. And after I saw that, honestly, I didn't do any more research because I was like, this speaks to me, as you know, someone who's followed your gifts uh for for a very long time. The joe La also have an instrument that is has its origins in their community, which is called the accounting, and the accounting is is like a loot. It's a string instrument that has a like a rounded base and then it had be a S S and then it has strings coming up and they play it um like a loot. While the accounting gave rise to all the music we have today, right, it gave rise to the banjo, which you know, gave rise to the blues and jazz and R and B and hip hop. And I think that all of that musical journey is found in again, how I'm I'm saying all this through my lens um, but how I view your work. I'm flabbergasted. I am lambergasted. The band or my many bands over the years, we've been talking about what is it that I play when I sing? Like I played, I used my fingers to play something when I sing, and I've always done it from the very big in and it never really understood what what it was. Some people, you know, they would say, oh, it's a harp, and some people so sometimes it's a guitar. Sometimes it's something this, this or that. But it's always something that I do with my with my fingers I do, and I never I thought I got it from like Joe Crocker. You know, if you watching in perform. You know, I just never like, you know, I hold my mouth the way I hold my mouth because of Rochelle Farrell. Once I saw her, she had to she had to get the note out by any means necessary. She would hold her mouth in a way and I was like, that's what you got to do, you know, and and that I get that from her. But I never understood the finger thing. And I can't wait to look up what it's called. Contina A K O T I N G. I'm interested to see it and how it's played. I'm gonna send you your team on link um. We did a revere a key tap from a child called Quest and his ancestry was Jola, and they brought in an ac content musician and he plays a little bit during the video. So I'll make sure that you post. I'll put that link in here so that you can see that, just as a step. So he's one of your cousin. What's one of your cousins? And I forgot about your cousins? Layah, it's uh, You've got people. Chadwick Boseman. We traced to Sierra Leone, Louis Gossip Jr. We've traded Piarra Leone, Ague Ellis, we've traced to Sierra Leone correct Dr Maya Angelou, So you've got some pretty powerful cousins too, and they're amazing story All those people you named, even in their acting, their amazing stories. And I have to have blows. I'm just I don't know what to do about this, Gina. I know this is about the first time that this has happened. What do I do for my sister? I don't Yes, well we we, I mean, we mean to anybody out, I'm bummed. I'm I'm absolutely bummed. But it's all good any hill. But Guinea Bassal is so dope because I'm one of my first African dance teachers was from Geinta Bassal and he taught us quite a few dances from that from that particular region. And I think it's and that was my first concept of understanding how different ethnic groups can be even when they live really close to each other. And I remember when we talked about a while back, talked about Black Panther and was talking to I tell about one of my favorite parts of Black Panthers, this point where they go and they they try to give him the flower after they realized that he's not completely dead. And the brother from the you know that the brother that runs the tribe that's up in the mountains, he takes the white guy and he said, you know, turn around. You don't get to look at this, and neither do I. They both turn around, and I thought that's really interesting because it's like, this is also not my culture either. I'm a kinda and that that they are Wakondon and so they have to do their their rituals themselves. And one of the things I learned about Gimme b Sal is that the ethnic groups is such a small place, but that the ethnic groups are very specific, and so dances that are done in certain parts are not done in places that are walking distance away. And so that gave me a really great kind of insight on just how vast and different and beautiful and specific Africa is. So yeah, I will be calling my uncle, butch Yeah, we're just gonna keep testing until we can get African linears. That's my commitment to you. Aga. Oh thank you. You know what, it's got to find it, that's all I mean. It's I mean, look at men. I think it's just so poetic that that you such a student of that continent. It's just did I would love to know. I feel like anybody you know what wants to know that, and you know, and I don't even want to make this emotional or anything, but it's too late. I've already been crying. It's so hard to be reminded of what was taken. Mm hm. But that's that's what I'm feeling a little bit of anger about what's what's been taking. And I don't even know the story had we not been here in the first damn place. But it is what it is, you being such a student at his continent, you teaching at least teaching me and Jail every day every day, and you're running running into this. It's kind of like it's a test. I'm currently reading um the Frederick Douglas Narrative with my kids, and and it is it's such a necessary piece of work, you know. And when you think about reading something from a firsthand account, you read your history book or you read something stiff. But when you read the words of a person who watched the thing, and witnessed the thing, and heard a thing and smelled a thing, you know, it makes you honor and understand these people, and so those are my thoughts on that. Anyway, I'm really excited though, sending you big hugs. Friends. You're far from me, and I love you, and I'm so proud of you. And thank you so much for educating us and entertainment entertaining on a regular basis. Thank you so much. That now that we've got we've got some other homework to do, you know, in the in the quest of find out more about who we are. You know, there's just this is something that everyone can do, you know, within within listening ears. You can go to African ancestry dot com to be specific, truly specific about where your bloodline comes from, your maternal bloodline in this case, I I can't wait. I'm excited to share this with my mother. I don't know what that's gonna mean to her, but it it gives me some research to do, you know. Yeah, I'm very excited about this accounting instrument. I want to see what that thing is. You need one for your house? I do. What are some of the interesting things that people have done with their results, like after you told them, like what's happened? People do lots of different things. Some people use it as a way to educate themselves and their kids. Right, a lot of kids it's have to celebrate ancestry Day at school or bring in a dish that represents their heritage. And so having this kind of information, uh provides a grounding for people. Some people have written music, they've written books, they've written plays. There are people who have started becoming politically active. They've lobby Congress on behalf of the country that they share ancestry with. They start businesses, they start philanthropic organizations, they they start giving to organizations in the country. They travel, they get citizenship. There's so many different reasons why people are exploring this identity, and they're equally as many ways that they use the information. For some people, they've done a lot of genealogy research and then, like most black people, they've hit a brick wall and so this bridge is the gap and helps to put that route on their family tree. So that those are the types of things that people do. So I'm excited to see what you all do with your information. Uh. It sounds like you might be. It might be coming with us on the next citizens to ship trip to uh CE. Oh my god, wait a minute, I didn't mention your your cousins, your most obvious cousin quest lo. We traced to the mendate that that that's it, that right there, that yep ye and thank you. I'm late. There is something that is something at Clair. Oh my god. Mayor won't even believe it. He'd be like, that's exactly what I thought. She'd say. I love it. That and the Jola are in Senegal as well, So maybe you guys are gonna take a group trip to Sanegal and you can you can learn about the Mandinka and Njola. Listen that, and we still said we're gonna look Asia, We're going to Ghana. I don't care where you from because we have to organize a trip because I'm going back. I've only been to South Africa, but we were going back because I just wanna I mean, I love traveling, but I just would love to spend a little bit more time on the continent in general, because it's just, you know, I feel like, again, there is just such a distance and we just need to spend more time in all the different spaces. You know, we get to go to one place and it feels like you can want to get that feeling back again. You want to learn more, you want to not you know, you grow up with this blanket Africa, this this you know, I'm going to all it's it's blanket and it's also it's also tainted what Africa is for for most of us. We already know romanticize like this. You know, it's always this this, you know, very polarized view of a place and and it's people. But the motivation of knowing that you're connected and specifically knowing you're connected can can only really increase the you know, the passion around learning because learning is just everything. I feel like there's African ancestors. We got a whole other business and trips to the continent. Truly, we definitely do so. Once you now that you're part of the African Ancestry family, we have an online community that's specific just to people who've taken our tests, where people are sharing all kinds of resources. And yes there are there are plenty of people on there who are Haplow Group H and you and M and in all the different letters. Oh women, I'm Haplow group. What what letter H? Yes? Oh lord. And then we also have African Ancestry Family reunions, so that I'm gonna get some T shirts. I'm gonna get some T shirts'sa haplo group h on the front. Y'all listen, Hey, it's gonna have to be. It's gonna be because I'm gonna ride it out till I find um. And it's funny because I knew I said, this type of ship writes itself like I don't know if you've listened to of the other episodes of the show, like I'm black and he black, black, black and black hear me and I knew it. I knew it. I said it's gonna be me and literally I called it in my mind. I said, I just have a freaking feeling that I'm white. I just I'm feeling I'm white. My husband's gonna tear me up. I just want you to know my husband, like, see, that's why you're so quick to call to police back in the day, and thought it was because it's because you're white. My husband is gonna have a ball with this. I just need you' all to understand, he's just gonna have a very good time with this one. Oh boy. And then in moments when you lease six that he gonna hit you with the heat he gonna hit it. He's gonna hit me with it. He's gonna hit me with it. If the food is not quite right, if if something I punish you, if it's just not quite enough, salting some ship, he gonna hit me with it. I know I'm ready, I'm ready, and I'm thick skinned. But I'm find to get my uncle on the phone tonight. Gina. Let's get these cell phone numbers exchanged, because we find to be best friends until I find out you find out your Africa. You gotta drop me agent, Oh baby, no, because LE tell you you my DC sister child. First. I was trying to hook up with you this Friday because I'm gonna be down there. But yes, I just want to do everything to promote your worth though, because what you're doing is just everything. And I want to be clear to everybody because this was a painful experience for me on some level, I'm grateful to have experienced it. I'm grateful to know. I'm grateful to have at least this opportunity to continue to find out because I think just understanding how genetics works and it's it's signed ends and its history, it's all these things wrapped up into one, and so I just love it. I love the idea of you having all of these black scientists and you know, being so specific with this information. I mean, some of the things I heard today about the other ladies, it's just inspiring. Thank you, Thank you, and we you know, we don't take this lightly. So as you were crying, I was crying because it's a collective, it's a spirit. But we do this work in service of black people, and there are a lot of black people that work with us behind the scenes to make it happen. So I appreciate that you all wanted to do this. You know, so many other people are satisfied with this finding out that there's some percentage of this or that based on you know, a little bit of African DNA. But you all understand the importance of the work, and so thank you. And I want to tell our listeners too, though you are an extension of our Sisters Circle, continue folks to utilize Sister Circle. We would not know Gina if it wasn't for my six great Mamma Kalita Stoates. So I'm just saying we are all just degrees apart to find the answers that we need. Thank you so much, Gina Page, bless you, thank you. This has been life changing. Man. Man. Yeah, So, if if you're out here and you wanna, you know, find out more about yourself, this is this is a beautiful option. It's it's a great place to begin your study learning more about yourself. African Ancestry dot Com ladies and gentlemen, get involved and get into it. Thank you so much for listening. It is uh oh, I feel like somebody has snatched my my, my face off. How about I know age you feel the same, just kind of snatched and yeah, yeah, yeah, wow yeah, I mean this this feels like an addiction, like what what more can we find out about ourselves? I would you know, I'm looking for my my superpowers, as many of my superpowers as I could find and use for the greater good, you know. To then amen, I'm in, I'm in. I'm just glad we started right like we started right, we started this journey right, you know what I mean, with our folks, with our sister that's right now. African Ancestry dot Com ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much, miss beautiful Queen Gina Page. Thank you so much for sharing your time and giving us this information. I'm excited to see what we do with it. Thank you for having me pleasure, honor and keep going sisters. So proud of you who lessons everybody. This has been JA dot Ilga podcast. Hi. If you have comments on something we said in this episode called eight six six, Hey Jill, if you want to add to this conversation, that's eight six six nine five four five five. Don't forget to tell us your name and the episode you're referring to. You might just hear your message on a future episode. Thank you for listening to Jill Scott Presents Jay dot il the Podcast. This podcast is hosted by Jill Scott, Laia st Clair, and Agr Graaden Danceler. It's executive producers are Jill Scott, Shawn g and Brian Calhoun. It's produced by la st. Clair. The editing and sound design for this episode we're done by Christina Lorenger. M J dot ill is a production of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the I heart Radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.