The Search for Ms. Wright

Q-Tip Finds His Tribal Roots: My Thoughts on African Identity

I can’t wait to find out who my people are. I think every African American person deserves to know who they are and where they came from. I seriously feel like if we knew, it would cure some of the madness we deal with as a people. I remember a professor, in my African Studies class, telling us how lost our people were because we had no connection to anything. My producer and I were having a conversation about the Holocaust and the African Slave Trade and it was interesting to hear him speak on his family origin and history; all I could think was “I can’t trace my family past Mississippi, Louisiana, or Texas.” I don’t know what African language my people speak and as a whole, people of African descent have never been an organized community because we all came from so many different communities in Africa; then were killed off on tragic voyages, and traded in the only place we would know as home. I don’t think any one will really understand the disconnect that creates. Mexican Americans can go back to see family in Mexico, European Americans can find out who they are in a matter of days, Indian & Asian Americans can go back home just as can African (i.e. Nigerian, Ethiopian, and etc.) American people but those we simply consider (Black) African Americans are just lost, wondering and in search of identity. It’s kinda like a sad love song that never ends. Just my thoughts…

DeAndre