Igboland Archives ⋆ Oriental Times

In a move tagged Root to Glory Tour, a contingent of Americans of African root came to Anambra state to connect with their spiritual base. During the tour, they were taken to Obu-Gad, Aguleri before they got hosted to a cultural festival at Rojenny Stadium and Tourists Village, Oba, very close to Onitsha. Denver Beaulieu-Hians, one of the people on tour, said she was very sure that she has an Igbo origin of Imo state. She was, however, confused about how to locate her exact place in the state. “My affinity with Africa is that I definitely have a family in Imo state that I connect to, it is more than knowing that I’m from Africa, I am from Imo State but I have not been able to meet my family in Imo. “The DNA on the internet connects African-Americans like me to my family because the blood does not lie, I am 60 percent African and it has been good relating with original African cousins,” she said. Another person, Nicholas Quesha, who is from Washington in US, said he is convinced his descendants are from a place around Anambra, Delta, Enugu, Imo states. “I took DNA test about five years ago and was able to identify with 25 Igbo cousins and through phone calls and visits, I was able to know that my ancestors belonged to the Igbo land. “Houston Texas is the largest Nigerian community outside Africa and I live there, so I don’t have problems of adaptation to Nigerian food because they were already familiar to me. I will continue to visit Nigeria and interact with my DNA cousins,” he said. Black Americans being attended to at Anambra Village In recent years, the number of people abroad tracing their roots back to Africa has been on the increase as a 2016 United States of America Census Bureau calculated the number of black in US to be at 40 million. According to the report, the number is just descendants of the 10.7 million slaves who survived the transatlantic slave trade. While some have been able to trace their roots, there is still a large number who do not really care about their origin. The Sun reports that Ohanaeze Ndigbo has been supporting Igbo Americans abroad who are very much interested in the quest for identity. Alex Ogbonnia, the president of the traditional Igbo apex group of Enugu state chapter, said that any of them who still wish to trace their root could be assisted in visiting the country.

Oriental Times

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