When Black people were trafficked from Africa and enslaved in the Americas, contact with blood relatives on the continent was essentially eliminated. But a new genealogical project called The African Kinship Reunion (TAKiR) is looking to help reconnect families separated by the Transatlantic Slave Trade.
Research biological anthropologist Dr. LaKisha David of the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign conducted, while working on her PhD in Human Development and Family Studies, has led to the use of genealogical tools that can connect people in the Americas with others they share DNA with in Africa.
The TAKiR genealogical initiative compares an individual’s DNA with that of others in its database, looking for shared genetic material that can go back 4 to 20 generations, with a particular focus on the last 500 years.
TAKiR, whose principal investigators include David, along with Dr. Carter Clinton of North Carolina State University; and Dr. Richael Odarkor Mills at the University of Cape Coast, has compiled a database that currently includes DNA samples from all of Ghana. Genetic profiles have been collected from Cape Coast, the northern regions of the country, and from historical DNA samples found at former slave camp sites like Elmina Castle, where more than 30,000 enslaved Africans were chained before being shipped to the Americas.
The project expects to expand and also get DNA samples from nations in Central Africa, the Caribbean, and Brazil. TAKiR’s collection of these DNA profiles is regulated by data privacy rules under the National Institutes of Health’s Institutional Review Board. The data is only accessible to TAKiR team members and not shared with law enforcement or outsiders without the individual’s active consent.
Ancestry tracing
Dr. David noted that her mother’s constant references to their African heritage, along with her own experiences in graduate school — seeing social media posts by African Americans who had been able to find living relatives in Africa, inspired her to look into studying genetic genealogy. Knowing that the ancestry tracing company African Ancestry uses genetic markers to identify a person’s relation to specific African countries or ethnic groups, she decided to focus her graduate studies on African American identity and well-being, and to train in genetic analysis.
The TAKiR project differs from African Ancestry, Dr. David explained, because “they test about 1% of the genome and only a few markers. But there are newer technologies out. The array we’re using, just like with Ancestry.com and 23andMe, allows us to test more places along the genome. And that should give us better results, it captures more of the ancestors that are in our genome.”
During their tracing process, if TAKiR identifies relatives who want to connect, it can establish contact between them. “We can exchange phone numbers and other details to help people get in touch,” she added.
Family roots
The project is already active in Illinois. TAKiR is now part of the Family Roots Genealogy Pilot Program, an Illinois state-funded initiative introduced by State Rep. Carol Ammons, which provides free DNA tests to Illinois residents interested in exploring their African ancestry.
“Approximately 15% of Black adults in the U.S. have taken consumer genetic genealogy tests,” the text of Ammons’ bill, House Resolution 453, points out, “African Americans should not be economically burdened to obtain information regarding their ancestral history, which was forcibly taken from them through practices of slavery that economically benefited the growing United States.”
Ammons says she plans to present HR 453 for adoption at the next conference of the National Black Caucus of State Legislators. And since the African Union is taking up the issue of reparations, “We are working with our partners to promote DNA work with the African nations to get more continental Africans in the [DNA] pool,” she said.
TAKiR also plans to offer its testing beyond Illinois, reaching more people across the United States. It has already received interest from representatives in New York, New Jersey, and Maryland, and a policy brief is being prepared to model the program for both national and international expansion.
More information about TAKiR can be found at https://takir.org.