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To be Whole Ronald McNair, the first Black American man
in space could be of Cameroonian ancestry. Sadly, he died in the space shuttle together
with 6 of his colleagues in the shuttle that crashed in January 1986. His brother, Carl
McNair lives in Atlanta, Georgia, with his family. When he started to write a book about
Ronald McNair, he felt the need to trace his ancestral roots deeper. He then did a DNA
test - the result of that test indicated that his ancestors were from
Cameroon in Central Africa, precisely from the Mafa tribe.
SB Carl McNair SB Mary McNair
Today, 13% of Americans are of African origin, and the ancestors of a large proportion of
them arrived the Americas as enslaved people during the transatlantic slave trade between
1600 and 1800. The level of interest in knowing their ancestry
is quite high among African Americans. We are here at the Savannah State University
in Georgia. The student population is predominantly black; practically every African American
to whom we put the question was interested in knowing their connection with Africa.
Vox Pop Dr Emory has spearheaded reconnection with
Sierra Leone in West Africa for decades. When he visited the country, he was given a title
Kpaa Kori with the status of a chief. This is how he explains the African American need
to reconnect. SB Dr Emory
At Emory University in Atlanta, Prof. Eltis who has been studying the slave trade for
over 40 years is working on a research project called the African names project. It aims
to trace the origins of captured Africans, rescued from slave ships by the abolitionists,
using their names as clues. The abolitionists had these freed people registered in courts
around the Atlantic, set up to facilitate the abolition drive. Names from Cameroonian
ethnic groups feature on those registers. SB Prof Eltis
Her name is Dr. Felicia Bell. The name Bell for example, is typical of the Sawa ethnic
groups found around the coast of Cameroon so she could be of Cameroonian ancestry. Some
researchers believe that this kind of evidence is more reliable than DNA evidence, because
the data base of African DNA is not yet strong enough.
SB Carl McNair SB Fomin
On the basis of DNA evidence, 50 African Americans, or Cameroonian Americans as they are now called,
visited Cameroon in December 2010. Carl McNair from Atlanta was among them. They received
a warm and unforgettable welcome. That visit was organised by Ark jammers, a
civil society organisation on a not for profit basis. Ark stands for Acts of Random kindness.
In their original plan, Ark Jammers meant to bring together artists for a musical event
in Cameroon. That’s when the idea of inviting DNA tested Cameroon Americans came up.
SB Eric Chinje During the visit of the Cameroon Americans,
the village of Bimbia became the most important stop over because of its historical significance.
It is perhaps hard to believe it now, but 200 years ago, Bimbia was a vibrant locality
inhabited by the Isubu tribe with a powerful ruler called Bile, later answering to the
name king William. He signed trade agreements with Europeans. The most important commodity
at the time which made the Isubu rich was slaves that they obtained through intricate
trade channels from the interior of Cameroon. Bimbia still bears relics from that era. This
cannon for example, served the abolitionists to suppress illegal slave traffic.
Most importantly, there are the relics of this former slave port. From the port, some
of the slaves were transported to Nichol Island by dugout canoes, because they could not escape
from the island. When the Carl and his group visited Bimbia,
they were presented an enactment of the slave trade, and the role of the local chiefs in
organising the capture of each other’s peoples, and selling them into slavery.
SB Mary McNair SB Carl McNair
SB Eric A great granddaughter of an Isubu King who
sold slaves was in that audience, and watched the re-enactment with the Americans.
SB Princess The ruins of the slave port have remained
practically unknown by the present generation, even of the Bimbia indigenes. Some rumours
hold that it was a taboo locality whose existence remained unacknowledged publicly.
SB Lifanda SB Princess
The prominence of the Bimbia slave port rose after the decline of other important slave
markets – a decline that was thanks to the abolition of slavery in 1807. The trade continued
clandestinely in Bimbia well into the early 1900’s.
SB Sehou During the slave trade era, Cameroon as a
nation did not yet exist, but people from the territory that is now Cameroon ended up
into slavery through Nichols Island and other islands like Fernando Po, and the slave port
of Calabar in Nigeria It is becoming evident from the work of researchers
that Cameroon’s implication in the slave trade has been underestimated.
Sehou SB Carl McNair
This monument that speaks of what the slaves endured on their passage across the Atlantic
Ocean stands on the riverside of Savannah in Georgia. Savannah, today a cheerful and
pleasant city, the birth place of David Mercer, the famous musician and one of the emblematic
symbols of the city – there are signs everywhere to make sure that Savannah does not forget
the slave trade. Today, massive ships bear thousands of tons up and down river Savannah.
In the slave trade era, ships that arrived here were hardly as big as this one, and were
packed to breaking point with a human beings from Africa, reduced to the status of cargo.
They journey took about 6 weeks. SB Eltis
Sullivan’s Island in Charleston, South Carolina. The dominant structure here is this fort,
Fort Moultrie that was a defense base during the American civil war. One small plaque holds
a reminder that it was here that the majority of enslaved peoples landed upon arrival in
America. SB Mike Allen
After the arrival the first stop was the slave market. This is an old slave market – Ryan’s
Mart, in Charleston, today housing a museum about slavery.
SB Mike Coker Right here in the backyard of Ryan’s Mart,
the captured people were quarantined, and if they did not die after two weeks, then
they were declared healthy enough to be sold. Most slaves after being bought, ended up in
plantations like this one. This is Magnolia Plantation. A typical plantation would be
made of a magnificent master’s house, and the slave quarters. The slave masters provided
the basics for their slaves in terms of clothing and lodging, but the slaves tended gardens that enabled them
to sustain their families. Inside the slave cabins, there is evidence of their African
origins. Here is the main reason why the slaves were
brought here – a purely economic one – to provide labour for the plantations; especially
cotton and rice plantations like this one, the Tide Marsh rice plantations worked by
slaves in the 1700’s and 1800’s. Not only was the work hard, but the conditions were
harsh – here for example, the slaves were exposed to alligators and mosquitoes.
SB Eltis There were times when over 80% of the population
of Charleston was black, when the slave owners, unable to stand the environmental conditions
in Charleston, had moved to other places, leaving behind the enslaved people to work
their plantations. Slave labour made Charleston rich. This could be seen especially in the
mansions that plantation owners were able to construct for themselves – the slaves
were their most precious wealth. For the African Americans, the legacy of slave
trade was racial discrimination, later institutionalised in racial segregation and which denied them
many human rights, and later civil rights. African Americans have come a long way, surmounting
many difficulties born of that sad past to achieve great things is different domains
in the American society. Reconnection with Africa is perhaps one more important step to achieving
wholeness, to getting over that feeling of being up against a wall.
SB Dr. Emory Africa and
Cameroon too need to come to terms with its past, to acknowledge the bitter truth about
the active role its peoples played in slavery through research, and through the proper preservation
of historical relics. SB Sehou
The first 50 African Americans who came in 2010 were offered land in the seaside town
of Kribi. This is one way of maintaining the newfound relationship between the Cameroon
African Americans
and Cameroon. Other ways will need to be developed. SB Chinje.