[D. Nicole Hall]

Three years ago, I started my journey to fill the Africa Void. The Africa Void is the quality or hollow state being without knowledge of or connection to Africa. My journey started after finding military and US Census records belonging to my (maternal) grandfather’s father.
Each record listed my great grandfather as Ethiopian.

Knowing an exact ethnicity gave me a sense of pride. I started learning—delving deep into learning about Ethiopian, Pan Africanism, Black historians, scholars and archaeologists (Cheikh Anta Diop, John G. Jackson, Chancellor Williams, Dr. John Clarke, Dr. Anthony Browder, Dr. Yosef Ben-Jochannan, Dr. Leonard Jeffries, Dr. Bunmi Oyinsan, Prof. Kaba Kamene, Dr. Umar Johnson, Dr. Claud Anderson, Tim Wise and Prof. James Small.

I observe Kwanzaa. Kujichagulia (Self-Determination) To define ourselves, name ourselves, create for ourselves and speak for ourselves. I don’t feel ADOS, is the correct term to describe enslavement or prisoners of war.

My ancestors are human beings, not “slaves”. The term ADOS continues the colonial (framework) dehumanization of African people. Colonial English is very demeaning and always very negative towards oppressed people.

Recently I had my dad and a cousin, take African Ancestry ancestry (Black owned) DNA testing. My dad, took a MatriClan and PatriClan Test Kits.

My cousin, is a direct descendant of my (maternal) grandfather’s mom. She took a MatriClan Test Kit. I’m looking forward to receiving the results (Feb 23rd-March 23rd, 2023).

In 2021, the Sierra Leone Government has created a path to Sierra Leonean citizenship for African Americans who have traced their DNA Heritage to Sierra Leone. I hope more African countries began to offer dual citizenship for legacy descendants.