Deelishous Me! asked:


1. African-Americans are mixture of the numerous African peoples. How can we be sure?

2. Can this truly be traced through male DNA

Actor Isaiah Washington said his ancestors are Sierra Leone and Angola assuming he got testing on his mother and father side.

Other black celebrities mentioned Ghana, Nigeria, and various other places.

Can it really be traced accurately?

Comments

6 Responses to “Is DNA testing that traces African tribe heritage for African-Americans accurate and credible?”

  1. Stupid_People_Annoy_Me on November 28th, 2008 9:52 am

    Oprah had hers traced back on an episode of The History Detectives (PBS). She was traced back to Europe instead of Africa.

  2. dimitris k on November 30th, 2008 3:51 pm

    Richard Dawkins in his book “The Ancestor’s Tale” has a long explanation about why these tests are not accurate. He says clearly that from a scientific point of view this is a hoax and people are being cheated. I am not a specialist but his explanation seems convincing.

  3. Charlie P on December 2nd, 2008 11:35 pm

    It is both scientifically accurate and more than credible. For more info

  4. grannytoad on December 5th, 2008 1:12 am

    As I understand it: I would think that if male, that is, yDNA were tested for specific markers, and those same markers were found in a population with a statistically large enough sample within an identified African group, then it may be possible. The likelihood of that is very very slim.

    Deep ancestry via DNA testing means at least 10,000 years ago a haplotype was concentrated geographically in some part of a continent or parts of continents.

  5. Laura B on December 5th, 2008 5:52 am

    DNA testing is only reliable and credible when done by Labs that are reliable and credible. You must have a family member in both places. A general population search would be worthless. But, if you can trace your ancestry thru bloodlines and names and places back to a point of origin you have a shot at it.

  6. mixedraceperson on December 8th, 2008 3:25 pm

    .

    Our society really needs to try to begin to understand that
    the ‘African-American’ (AA) ‘Ethnic’ group is *not* the
    same group as the ’Black American’ (BA) ‘Race’ group —
    that the two (2) terms are *not* synonymous and that the
    two (2) terms should *not* be used inter-changeably.

    We are *not* speaking of ‘semantics’ here – but rather
    – the BAs & AAs are two different groups of people.

    The AAs are the (largely Mixed-Race) ETHNIC group.

    The BAs are the (Mono-Raced) RACE group.

    As confusing as it seems — the U.S. government
    [due to racism & wanting to stigmatize the part
    of their lineage that was from Africa which, by
    the way, is only one part of their lineage] —

    has labeled those individuals who are the known
    “descendents of the survivors” of the system of
    chattel-slavery found in the USA as being AAs
    (the hyphen is used in reference to acknowledging
    the fact that most of them are Mixed-Race,
    with African & non-African blood lines)

    AND

    has labeled those people who are “volitional immigrants”
    who are directly from places such as the continent of
    African, the West Indies, etc. — as being BAs
    (with the word ‘Black’ used in reference to acknowledging
    the fact that they are of a Mono-racial full-Black lineage).

    In addition, it should also be remembered that – although
    some AAs adhere to a socio-political ‘identity’ that is
    often described by the slang term of “black”—the AAs
    are actually *not* a “Race” group at all — but rather
    they *are* a largely Mixed-Race ‘Ethnic’ group
    (and the socio-political ‘identity’ that a person chooses
    *does not* change their racially-mixed ancestral lineage).

    Most (+70%) of the people born to two (2) parents who
    are of the AA ‘Ethnic’ group are are of a Multi-Racially
    ‘Mixed’ (MGM) lineage – while the people to two (2)
    parents who are of the BA ‘Racial’ group – on the
    other hand – are of a Mono-Racially ‘Black’ lineage.

    There is a big difference between a largely Multi-racial
    ‘Ethnic’ group and between a Mono-racial ‘Race group.

    In addition, there is also a big difference between
    one’s socio-political ‘identity’ (ex. “black”) and
    one’s ancestral racial ‘lineage’ (ex. ‘Mixed’).

    Just because a person adheres to a given
    socio-political ‘identity’ does *not* change
    the composition of their ancestral ‘lineage’.

    Also — the ‘One-Drop’ Rule (the false teaching that
    ‘any amount’ of Black ancestral lineage make a
    person “full black”) is nothing more than pure-racism.

    The ****** ‘One-Drop Rule’ (used only by the United
    States government, by the way) was created during
    the antebellum, chattel-slavery era by White racial
    supremacist in order to get people to believe the false
    racist myth that the so-called White “race” was “pure”
    and to falsely view the Black “racial” admixture
    (even the slightest amount) within someone’s
    ancestral lineage as being “tainted”.

    To embrace the ‘One-Drop Rule’ is the equivalent of BOTH
    embracing “racism” and embracing the false teaching
    that a Mixed-Race person’s Black lineage is “tainted”.

    My advice is that a non-Racist should *not* embrace
    the concept of the ‘One-Drop Rule’ — as “Black blood”
    is *not* “tainted” — and should never be perceived
    or embraced as being so (not even in the
    name of so-called “pride” and “unity”).

    In addition, legally-speaking, attempted forcible
    application of the ****** ‘One-Drop Rule’ — against
    any individual or group — was made illegal and ruled
    as unconstitutional by the United States Supreme Court
    in 1967 via the case of ‘Loving vs. The State of Virginia’.

    Through the ‘Loving vs. Virginia’ case, the U.S.
    Supreme Court, ruled against both all of the laws
    banning *********** marriage — and — also ruled
    that any so-called law which forcibly applied the
    ‘One Drop Rule’ — was racist, discriminatory,
    illegal, unconstitutional, and non-enforcible.

    Related Links:

    ————————PLEASE NOTE———————

    — Dr. Luigi Caveli-Sforza, who is the Executive
    Director of the Human Genome Project and the
    world’s foremost authority on human genetics
    has both tested and proven that more that 70%
    of all AAs have a full ancestral lineage which
    consists of +20-30% White / European and
    more than +25% Amerindian bloodlines.

    — That means that the ‘average’ (+70%) person
    born to two (2) parents who are both members
    of the AA Ethnic group actually has slightly
    less than 50% Black / African blood lineage
    found in his or her full-ancestral lineage.

    For more information — see supporting links listed below:

    ————————— ADDED NOTE ———————

    It should also be noted that — contrary to popular belief and
    myth spread among many groups who are not educated or
    informed on the whole topic — it was not the group that is
    currently being referred to as being the African-Americans
    (AAs) — who chose this term for them — but rather —
    like so many of the other terms used to describe
    them — this term was also implemented by
    the United States federal government
    (starting with the 1990 United
    States ‘Census Bureau’ Forms).

    If a person insists on spreading the ‘myth’ that it was the
    AAs who chose this term for themselves — it is clearly
    indicative of the fact that they have never even once
    actually studied the entire topic and are simply basing
    their comments on assumption-based ignorance –
    rather than objective facts and empirical evidence.

    .