Hey folks, I need to say that I agree with Sara here. We have a lot of folks that come to this list to learn more about a region and subject that is subject to many misconceptions. It behooves us all to be patient and helpful in our responses. Dean ----- Original Message ----- From: "Sara Weiss" <ksara@tesco.net> To: <CARIBBEAN-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, June 16, 2003 3:11 PM Subject: Re: MSNBC News Link: DNA tackles a familys mysteries > if you know so much it would be good if you shared your knowledge > in a way that was edifying, not in a way that PUTS DOWN?

I must say that I was quite happy to see the out-pourings on this topic, and just when I thought that the difference in opinion and knowledge was being handled amicably and politely, some-one uses the word "ill-informed" "pretends to be" rather than mis-informed or mistaken. Of course the writer of those words did offer an apology in advance. Sara of course has been quite honest about being a beginner and being willing to learn more about the subject, which is admirable. But we need also to be cautious about drawing conclusions about our ancestry based on what others may have observed about our physiognomy, or physical appearance. Such conclusions can only be limited to the observer's knowledge or stereo-type of the ethnicity of the people being matched to. The slaves generally came from West Africa and through Ghana but not all came from what is now Ghana. Most came from the hinterland to the North, East, and South of Ghana, correctly referred to as the slave coast because it was the coastal areas from whence the slaves were transported, but they were gathered from the directions mentioned above. I have personally met Ghanaians who fit the stero-type of a Ghanian, but I have met others who did not fit the stereo-type. I have met Ibos of Nigeria who did not look alike. I have met Zimbabwians and Kenyans who looked Ethiopian, and I have met some Ethiopians who did not fit the semitic stereo-type of Ethiopians, and what's more I have also seen a few documentaries in which whole villages did not fit the stere-type. I have seen West Indians who looked like Bantu and also like Congo pygmies, except that they were a bit taller. Tutsis are said to be Arab-Semitic-African and Hutus said to be African looking. And yet one can meet both groups, or see them in documentaries and be thoroughly confused as to who is who. I met people from Burundi and Rwanda who looked the stereo-type of African, who looked Hutu, and who said they were Tutsi and hated Hutus. I have met another who refused to identify himself as of either group, who said he was just Burundian, and that generally if one was rich one was Tutsi, and if poor Hutu. If they all were as enlightened as this person - that they were all Burundians - all the genocide might have been avoided. Could Africans further than Central Africa as far as East Africa, and further down to South Africa, and further up to North Africa, have ended up in the West Indies as slaves or even Jewish servants; or could even free Falasha Jews have ended up in the West Indies? All this is quite possible. All of the fore-going is possible if one remembers the African-Arab trading routes that criss-crossed North Africa and down the East African Coast. Jews were also world-wide traders, with settlements or quarters throughout the Arab world and settlements and trading posts in North and East Africa. Some might have even been on the trade routes to the West African coast. Since the stereo-type that we see of the Falashas could pass as an Arab/African mixture, if they acquired Swahili, they could in fact have so passed in trading for themselves, or for, and with, Jews. Could there have even been Jews who looked African and were African. Could there have been African slaves of Jews in the West Indies and North America, who were converted to Judaism and thus became Jews? All the fore-going is quite possible. Jews did convert others to Judaism, and others converted to Judaism. Could some of these traders have been seized upon by rivals and sold into slavery through West Africa? This is quite likely and possible. Being a Jew is not a race, it is a religion, and Jews have ended up in the most unlikely places, the descendants of whom had the vaguest idea of their ancestry. I read last year of "John the Jew" in Guyana. A Rabbi from the US had found him, and after questioning him, found that he had the vaguest of memories of Judaism. He was quite old, but had the memory that his father was Jewish, but could not prove it by any incantation learnt as a child, or any religious Jewish religious artifact. All he could remember that his father at times looked like a bird attempting to fly. This satisfied the Rabbi, who recognised the significance of the memory, and identified it as John's father putting on his robes and shawl before studying the scriptures and praying. Could some Falashas (Jews) have come from North Africa or Ethiopia to the West Indies? This is quite possible. But one cannot depend on a stereo-type identified by some-one in passing, and certainly not by one who says that all the African slaves in the Caribbean came from Ethiopia. One has to document all the above that I said was possible. I hope this helps. Richard ----- Original Message ----- From: "Dean de Freitas" <caribgw@bellsouth.net> To: <CARIBBEAN-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, June 16, 2003 12:21 PM Subject: Re: MSNBC News Link: DNA tackles a familys mysteries > Hey folks, > > I need to say that I agree with Sara here. We have a lot of folks that come > to this list to learn more about a region and subject that is subject to > many misconceptions. It behooves us all to be patient and helpful in our > responses. > > Dean > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "Sara Weiss" <ksara@tesco.net> > To: <CARIBBEAN-L@rootsweb.com> > Sent: Monday, June 16, 2003 3:11 PM > Subject: Re: MSNBC News Link: DNA tackles a familys mysteries > > > > if you know so much it would be good if you shared your knowledge > > in a way that was edifying, not in a way that PUTS DOWN? > > > ==== CARIBBEAN Mailing List ==== > For information on individual islands, research aids, island bulletin boards or history please visit the CaribbeanGenWeb project at > http://www.rootsweb.com/~caribgw/ > >