The day my ancestors rejoice

THE EDITOR, Madam:

June 19 is celebrated by African Americans as Juneteenth. It marks the occasion when full freedom, or Emancipation, was achieved by the enslaved Africans in 1865, some 31 years after slavery ended in the British colonies in 1834.

Since then, people of the African diaspora have been making connections with the varied ethnic groups that were either transported during the despicable Atlantic slave trade or as indentured labourers, post Emancipation.

A letter dated September 16, 1842, from Mr Walter Dendy to Mr John Clark, included the following classifications of Africans in the Baptist Church at Salters Hill: “Koramantees, Eboes/Igbos, Popaws, Mandinjoes, Bandas, Warnee, Kongoes, Guineas, Clambos, Nangos, Housa/Hausa and Moko.”

We also know of the Yorubas, including Edos.

DNA testing also identified Galwa, who lived along the Ogowe River in Gabon (French West Africa), and the Kasema/Kassena people. Jamaicans are also connected to Mali; Sierra Leone; and the Southern Bantu people, especially from South Africa.

Since 2019, I have established contact with cousins from Ghana on both my maternal and paternal side who are from the Ashanti people. I also found other cousins from Sierra Leone, Gabon, Nigeria and South Africa. In regard to Nigeria, I am connected mainly to the Igbo, Edo and Yoruba peoples.

On Monday, May 29, 2023, one of my cousins, Chuba Udokwu, and Emmanuela, his wife, flew to Jamaica, spending two nights at the Grand Palladium Hotel & Spa, located in Hanover. Chuba is a founder and managing partner at Equitas Tech Advisors, where he is focused on advising CEOs and executive management of tech companies on growth and value-oriented strategies. In reaching out to me about their visit, he describes an observation of the people in Montego Bay, “The people and culture I see here are Igbo for sure.”

I travelled from Mandeville to the Grand Palladium Hotel & Spa for our historic meeting. Here, I must commend the staff at the hotel, from the security at the main entrance to those in the lobby, for their excellent customer service. Emmanuela showed me a photo of one of Chuba’s uncles whom I resemble, and we spoke about the family’s history, including how they escaped during the Biafra Civil War (1960s) and the oral history of members of the family who got separated during the Atlantic slave trade.

During the 1960s when President C. Odumegwu Ojukwu declared the country of Biafra independent it caused a civil war, resulting in the displacement of people. In November 1968, Ojukwu granted Chuba’s mother and the children permission to fly out of the Biafra enclave, and this provided the opportunity to escape from Nigeria to America.

DUDLEY MCLEAN II