Dr. Wanda Tucker is fortunate among Black Americans.
That is because she is among the few who can trace their roots to a specific ancestor from Africa. But it was a collaboration with a news organization that allowed her to make the connection that the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade sought to break centuries ago.
The Tucker family history – from Angola to Hampton, Va. – had piqued the interest of a USA Today journalism team led by reporter Deborah Barfield Berry. The news organization’s “1619: Searching for Answers” project was covering American history and in 2019, asked if they could travel with Dr. Tucker to Angola to write about her return to the land of her ancestors.
Tucker’s family has long traced its legacy to Anthony and Isabella, the parents of William Tucker, the first African child born in what would become the United States. The two were kidnapped from the Kingdom of Ndongo in what is now Angola and thrown aboard a ship named the San Juan Bautista, bound for Mexico. When that ship was attacked, they were rerouted to Virginia aboard the English-owned White Lion ship. According to census records from the time, they were enslaved in Virginia by Captain William Tucker.
“At that time, the [Angolan] government had no knowledge of my family as descendants,” Tucker explained to the AmNews. “So it was surprising, you know, for them and for the administrators as we went from province to province.”
With the newspaper team, Tucker visited the Kalandula Falls — one of Africa’s largest waterfalls and a site of sacred ritual — and the trading center in the city of Cambambe, which the Portuguese turned into the Massangano Fortress in the late 16th century. She also saw Angola’s longest river, the Kwanza, which was used by slave ships to transport kidnapped Africans to the Atlantic.
Once the USA Today article about the Tucker family was published and the Angolan government became aware of their connection as descendants, Tucker says, “The pace really ramped up in how they received us, treating us as family whenever we’re in the country.
“They have often televised that we were there,” she added. “We hear from other Angolans that, at various periodic times, they run recordings of our presence there as a way of keeping the people aware that we have those Angolan connections and that we continue to come back and bring tour groups every year. So, we’re warmly received, but on a deeper level as descendants, you know, of Angolans, and that we have a very deep and rich 400-plus-year connection that both continents are learning about at the same time.”
Dr. Wanda Tucker photos
Neil Breslin; Vincent Tucker, head of the William Tucker 1624 Society; Dianne Peterson; Marcos Nhunga, governor of the Angolan province of Malanje; Hampton, Va Mayor Jimmy Gray; Virginia Councilmember Hope Harper, and Dr. Wanda Tucker 
Vincent and Angolan king 
Vincent Tucker holding a little girl at an Angolan orphanage.
Back to Africa
Since 2019, the Tucker family has made regular visits to Angola. In 2021, Tucker was introduced to President João Lourenço at the National Museum of African American History at the Smithsonian. Lourenço invited Tucker, her brother Vincent Tucker — president of the William Tucker 1624 Society — and their cousin Carolita Jones Cope to tour Angola. The group traveled to Angola in December 2021, toured different regions of the country, attended official meetings with the president, and visited their ancestral village.
Tucker says her renewed relationship with Angola has given her the opportunity to watch it progress.
Under President Lourenço, Angola is trying to diversify its economy, which was previously heavily dependent on oil. As Angola marks 50 years of independence, it is trying to modernize by investing in infrastructure projects such as the $10 billion Lobito Corridor, which will link its rail, road, energy, and telecommunications networks and strengthen regional ties.
Dr. Tucker has also noticed the growing impact of investment on the country’s hospitality industry.
The William Tucker 1624 Society (https://www.wt1624society.org/) now leads annual heritage tours to Angola. In 2022, the society took its first group of family and friends. By 2023, the initiative grew significantly when former Virginia Lieutenant Governor Justin Fairfax sponsored a group of over 50 people, including championship-winning high school basketball teams, to tour the country.
“Over the years, particularly in the hospitality industry, we’ve noticed that more and more people are learning English,” Tucker said, which helps to decrease language barriers for those who want to travel to Angola but don’t speak Portuguese. “Both sides are making great efforts to communicate.”
Dr. Tucker hopes more African Americans — those with lineage ties and those with cultural ties to the continent — will think about traveling to Angola for tourism and for the chance to reclaim an African identity.
“The bigger connection has been to make sure that we continue to develop and build on the relationships we have,” Tucker said about her now constant travels back to Angola. “We visit the hotels, restaurants, and markets, and people say, ‘Oh, you’re the Tucker family!’ We have always been warmly received.”