African-Americans to reunite with Ghanaian ancestry

Africans who were taken into slavery in America during the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade would be reuniting with their ancestors in one of the biggest ever home coming events to be held next year.

The Centre for African American Genealogical Research, Inc. (CAAGRI), a non-governmental organisation, is spearheading the home coming event aimed at reuniting as many African families in the Diaspora with biological families in Ghana.

The Centre, which launched a project called the Sankofa project in 2004, said DNA tests conducted on 206 Ghanaian men have matched some African-Americans relatives who would be making their journey home next year.

Ms Paula D. Royster, Chief Executive and Founder of CAAGRI said, the Virginia based NGO was in close talk with the Ghana Museums and Monuments Board (GMMB] to assist it to secure Fort Fredericksburg in the Western Region from which to begin the atonement and reconciliation process between the African-Americans and their African cousins.

She said CAAGRI was also collaborating with GMMB to make Ghana the first African country in the world to host the first ever genealogy and Research Centre to be located in the Slave Castle.

"The potential revenue to be generated for the local community as well as the government would be immeasurable", she said.

In one of the DNA tests, according to Ms. Royster, an Nzima King was matched with his cousin in Memphis, Tennessee in the United States. She added that it came to light that Nana Kudumuah IV was his long lost relative.

Ms. Royster said MGRI has digitised more than two million records so far for the Public Records and Archives Administration (PRAA).

She noted that prior to the digitisation project, original documents were being destroyed through constant handling by researchers.