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Courtesy of William Holland
Atlanta genealogical researcher William Holland, left, stands alongside the Queen Mother for the Ghanaian village of Adidokpoe-Battor (center) and William Akpaglo. The two Williams share genetic markers, suggesting that they are distantly related.
Based on his genetic profile, William Holland considers himself a descendant of noble families going back more than a millennium. Between then and now, however, his ancestors were dispersed around the African continent — and some of them were brought to America as slaves. That's the branch of the family to which Holland and his family belong.
Now, Holland is bringing the centuries-old saga of his family full circle by inviting his long-lost relatives to come from Africa to America. If Holland's plan works out, African royalty will meet face-to-face with the descendants of slaves and slave owners in Virginia.
"It's something that's never been done before," Holland told me today, on the last day of Black History Month. "It's something that should not be missed."
The genesis of Holland's plan goes back to the trips he's taken over the past year to fill in the gaps in his genetic heritage. Y-chromosome tests suggested that his ancestors were related not only to a royal family in the West African nation of Cameroon, but also to a noble family in Ghana, hundreds of miles away.
"I'm overwhelmed now," said Holland, who is the great-grandson of a slave who found himself serving in the Confederate army during the Civil War. But Holland isn't too overwhelmed to make a kind of sense out of his tangled genetic tale.
This month, during a visit to his genetic relatives in Ghana, Holland pieced together a story of a grand migration. A comparison of his Y-chromosome markers with those of the families in Ghana and Cameroon suggested that their most recent common ancestor lived perhaps 50 generations ago, or roughly 1,000 to 1,500 years ago. His Ghanaian hosts, members of the Akpaglo family, told him that their ancestors migrated southward from Sudan and settled in the Oyo Empire. Holland assumes that his Cameroonian ancestors were part of that migration as well.
"From there, they split up," he told me. One ancestral line eventually took root in Ghana, another in Cameroon. Holland has now been to both nations to track down his pedigree. Armed with the genetic results, he was initiated into two African families.
In Cameroon, Holland was given a royal name ("Ndefru"). In Ghana, the Akpaglo family gave him three more African names during a seven-hour ceremony. Holland's new names include Togbe ("old wise man," even though Holland is in his 40s), Korsi ("born on Sunday," which he was) and Degboe ("brave person who went away and returned").
"I'm satisfied now — now that I have four names," Holland joked.
But he's not finished yet. Holland still wants to share the experience he had with his fellow Americans, and at the same time give African visitors a taste of America. Holland says some of his friends and relatives back home in Atlanta are irked by the idea that they were somehow sold into slavery by their African ancestors. His African friends and relatives say that's not the way it was. So Holland is trying to organize a daylong reunion and seminar on May 22 in Virginia, where his ancestors worked as slaves, to give Africans and Americans a chance to talk through their history together.
Holland has invited Fon Angwafo III, who heads the Mankon tribal group in Cameroon, as well as family representatives from Ghana. He's hoping that his African-American relatives as well as the descendants of the Virginia family who held his ancestors as slaves will be on hand as well.
"You hope to enlighten your family about Africa and what happened in the slave trade," Holland explained.
Holland has already heard that "the Fon" has accepted his invitation, and he's pretty sure someone from Ghana also will be coming. It's not a done deal yet, but if everything works out the way Holland hopes, one man's quest to find his family roots will turn into a meeting of the clans from across oceans of time and space.
Holland says his newfound African kin can hardly wait. "They're past excited right now," he told me. All in all, not a bad way to end Black History Month.
Feel free to recount your own family quest in the comment section below. For more coverage of Black History Month and beyond, check in with msnbc.com's corporate cousins at TheGrio.com.
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Seeing your article of Mr. Willam Holland caused me to reflect on how I first met my Ghanaian family while attending a conference in Accra Ghana in 2006. I became the first member in The Sewer Family, (Our spelling was intentionally changed to prevent us from ever connecting to Ghana. Fortunately for us, the family kept the sound of the name- So-ah), to connect with the family after 300 years. My maternal Grandfather gave me the nick name Bambuey which I later found out was of Ga origin and meant " One who brings people together." I am constantly in touch with my family in Gana.
Thank you for allowing me this forum.
I am Lawrence R, Sewer
Very interesting story, though not the always tainted American excuse that African people,mostly kings, sold their kins to slavery. First, who sold who, and how did the seller prevent himself from being sold, or, was the seller not the specy the buyer wanted? Second, how much was paid for a slave, who had the need for a slave, and if the so-called seller refused to sell, would the buyer, who had braved high tides from far, in yatches, return empty-handed? If the answer is "yes", then, why did the buyer come with guns and other weaponry?You talk of "sell" as if buyers came to a market with people bundling other people, infront of them, and making a bargain, or like a bundle of slaves were displayed on shelves, like in a grocery store, and buyers only walked in, grapped a cart and went picking those they needed.
African kings kept captives from inter-tribal skirmishes, when the gun-in- pocket buyer came in, they pushed the captives out, to protect their own children, families and kins. Their intention was to get rid of the captives but little did they imagine that the captives they got rid of in mamfe-cameroon would be railed be to the coast and shipped out of the continent. These interior kings knew only their neighboring tribes, did not know there was an ocean, or how far they were from the ocean.When the captives were exhauted, the kings, still to protect their tribes, collaborated for their security because the buyer knew exactly how lucrative the business was, and would stop at nothing, from getting his goods. Last, please, always mention the plunder with which the buyer bought his articles. If not, then do not blame africans of a business whose profits were enjoyed elsewhere. Were native americans - primary source of slave labor, also sold by their kings and peaople?
Fascinating story. Sounds like Mr. Holland had a huge amount of work involved in this.
Ironically, if this guy is from a "royal" African family, his ancestors most likely owned slaves, too. Or possibly sold them to European slave traders. I hope he doesn't fail to include that part of his history in his research efforts.
And what difference would that make? People study their ancestry to know where they came from, not to pass judgment on entire races or justify their favorite "he did it too" narrative.
It's so gratifying to finally see the inclusion of African-American history in the history of America.
It is amusing that everyone wants to trace themselves back to a "King" whether it be from Europe or Africa. It probably helps that it was not uncommon for royalty anywhere to have a number of children on the side. By the time you go back 80 generations everyone is bound to have had a royal or nobel ancestor. It does provide him with an interesting look at the possible rout his family came to America but I suspect there are more unknowns than knowns.
What a great generic tale! William Holland's idea of bringing African royalty face- to- face in Virginia with the descendants of slaves and slave owners to talk through their history together is fascinating and unprecedented. Certainly this shall be a great opportunity to unravel lots of misconceptions on the gruesome slave trade.
I subscribe to the views of Neba. I'm quite convinced that if comparative studies are made on the wealth situation of descendants of the so-called African slave sellers on the one hand and descendants of American or European slave merchants and owners on the other hand, the gap will be as wide as night and day.
However, I think what is important now is not apportioning blames but seeing how we can together contribute in erasing the scars of slavery and forge ahead in harmony.The era of apportioning blames is over.
Incredible story.