WASHINGTON (BLACK PR WIRE) — African embassies based in the United States are tapping a pipeline of African Americans with interests in their African homeland countries.
Through African Ancestry (AfricanAncestry.com), newly discovered descendants are enjoying “diplomatic relations” including specialized trips to Africa, information exchanges from their African countries of origin and direct access to African ambassadors in the U.S., including embassy-sponsored national celebrations of their African homelands.
Founded in 2003, African Ancestry Inc. pioneered African lineage matching in the United States utilizing its proprietary DNA database to more accurately assess present-day countries of
origin for people of African descent.
The results have impacted the lives of African-American icons such as Oprah Winfrey and Andrew Young, and marked an historic milestone by posthumously uncovering the ancestral roots of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. AfricanAncestry.com was featured on ground-breaking PBS specials with Henry Louis Gates Jr. AfricanAncestry.com is working to transform misperceptions of Africa and support cultural and educational relations in the U.S. and Africa. After tracing his roots to Sierra Leone with African Ancestry, award-winning actor Isaiah Washington made history by becoming the first person to gain citizenship on the African continent solely based on DNA.
AfricanAncestry.com currently is working with Cameroon, Burkina Faso and Gabon among others to strengthen connections to Africa and African-American communities across the U.S. “African Ancestry’s commitment to helping people enhance the way they view Africa is awe-inspiring. Thousands of African-American families now zealously identify with their Cameroonian roots,” said Joseph Charles Foe Atangana, ambassador to Cameroon of the United States. “Their pioneering work has taken a progressive role in the African Diaspora and created a reinvigorated pipeline of enlightenment between America and Africa.”
Picture above ANCESTRAL CONNECTIONS: From left, First Secretary of Cameroon Omar Chinmoun, African Ancestry’s Gina Paige, Cameroon Ambassador Joseph Charles Foe Atangana, Congresswoman Karen Bass, Paula Madison, Mark Walton and unidentified participant.
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