Over a million African-Americans benefit from DNA-established birthright to trace ancestry

Over one million African-Americans are said to have benefited from a DNA-established birthright journey to trace their ancestry lines.

This is according to Dr Gina Paige, Co-Founder and President of the African Ancestry which has been in existence for the past 17 years and has impacted and helped over one million people to trace their ancestries to either their maternal or paternal lines.

“Over a million people have benefited from this because when one person takes the test, everybody in their family gets an answer to their ancestry line and what makes this initiative exciting is, if we can get just a fraction of those people to come back to the African continent, there’s all sorts of opportunities to both us and the people of the countries they return to.” she explained.

Dr. Paige made the revelation speaking with reporters after the announcement of the African Ancestry Family Reunion initiative organised to unite all individuals who have established their birthright through the DNA test.

She added that in the coming year 2020, her outfit will together with those that are a part of the African Ancestry Family Reunion, will embark on a tour to six African countries to identify with their home countries.

The commencement of the tour, will be in April 2020 to Ghana and will spread across to other African countries.

Some of the countries to be toured include Ghana, Sierra Leone, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Cameroon and Senegal. Dr Gina Paige however noted that these countries were chosen because they had more people tracing their ancestry to them.

Diallo Sumbry, the Director of Partnerships for African Ancestry on his part explained that the operations of the company has been run by black people and established for the black people.

“It is time for Africa to unite and take up her destiny and we at the African Ancestry will continue to remain a platform that helps members to reconnect with their ancestry”

CEO of Ghana Tourism Authority, Mr Akwasi Agyeman in his remarks said the 'Year of Return' has so far presented an opportunity for Africans “to be fair, candid and open about who we are, where we have come from and the resilience that we have exhibited over the past 400 years”.

“Ghana is the gateway to Africa and Ghana would gladly welcome all Africans, who have identified their ancestries to use the country as an entry point into their various countries,” he concluded.

The African Ancestry, is a US-based pioneer of genetics ancestry tracing for people of African descent.