Interview with Gina Paige, President and Co-Founder of African Ancestry, Inc.
Roger Madison, CEO of iZania, spoke with Gina Paige to share the story of how this breakthrough test can help transform the way you define yourself.
Click the play arrow below to listen to the complete interview{mp3}izania.com_africanancestry_interview{/mp3}
iZania: Thanks for speaking with me today about this exciting
breakthrough that has received nationwide exposure . . . at PBS, the
Today Show, Black Enterprise and other media outlets. Tell us about
your background and how African Ancestry was created.
Gina: I have an MBA from the University of Michigan, and spent
many years doing product management and general management for brands
like Sarah Lee and Colgate Palmolive. I was introduced to Dr. Kittles
in 2002. . . when he had completed a database of indigenous African
lineages. Quite selfishly, he wanted to know where he had come from.
When the community found out that he had this capability, he was
inundated with requests to tell them where they were from in Africa. So
he and I collaborated – I commercialized his research to make it
available to anyone who wants to know. So, I like to say that the
community created African Ancestry, not Dr. Kittles or myself.
iZania: Has there ever been anything like this to trace African American heritage?
Gina: No. Actually, this is a one of-a-kind opportunity. There
are other companies that use the same processes that we use. However,
because they don’t have a database of African lineages, when your
results come back African, they just tell you that your ancestry is
African. So what makes us different and unique is that we can place
African Ancestry in a present day country in Africa. We are often able
to identify an ethnic group or groups in that region as well. So, we
are providing the tools that transform the way that people view
themselves, and the way that they view Africa.
iZania: I understand that this is DNA based. Is that correct?
Gina: Yes. Determining ancestry is a relatively straightforward
process. So, what happens is with the test kit that we provide, the
person swabs the inside of their cheek, using a long swab that looks
like a Q- Tip. . . Then our lab extracts the DNA from that swab and
sequences it, looking at a very specific portion of the DNA that you
inherit only from your mother (this is when you are tracing maternal
ancestry). There is DNA that you got from your mother . . . and what
you have is the same as your mother, and the same as your grandmother,
and great grandmother, and so on. So there is a very small portion of
you DNA that provides an informative record of the history of your
maternal line. We then compare your . . . DNA sequence with the
sequences that are in our database. Our database has the largest, most
comprehensive collection of indigenous African lineages in the world.
So we have data similar to yours from 30 countries on the African
continent, and about 200 ethnic groups. So we look for matches, and
people who share that same small area of the DNA, share maternal
ancestry. The same can be done when you are tracing your father’s line
– your paternal line. Instead, we look at the DNA of men – only men can
do this test – that you have inherited from your father; the Y
chromosome. . . .
iZania: Does it always lead to Africa?
Gina: No, it doesn’t. Actually, we know that as African
Americans, we are a apart of this great melting pot in the United
States. When we trace maternal ancestry, we find African ancestry about
95% of the time. And when it is not African, it tends to be Native
American. Less than one percent of the time we may find Asia or Europe.
But when we trace the paternal side, it’s a very different story. We
find African ancestry only about 70% of the time. And the remainder of
those lineages – 3 out of 10 Black men that we test have European
ancestry, not African ancestry.
iZania: In the interest of full disclosure, I am a client of
African Ancestry. I flipped a coin to determine if I should do the
paternal or maternal ancestry. I chose my paternal ancestry and . . . I
was a little bit disappointed to find out that my paternal ancestors
are from Europe. I am one of those 3 out of 10. . . Now I have to do
another test to determine if my maternal ancestors are from Africa.
Gina: It’s important too that you are not alone in your
disappointment . . . not necessarily because it’s European, but you
were hoping for African ancestry. It’s important to note too that by
finding out that your lineage is European, that doesn’t mean you are
not a Black man. You’re still a Black man. Socially and culturally, you
have created an identity for yourself. It’s just one part of who you
are.
iZania: In closing, is there something that you would like to share with the iZania community?
Gina: Yes. In addition to the impact that this has on you
personally, and at the family level, I would just like to have your
listeners know that going through this journey for people has been
extremely transformative and extremely empowering. We now have people
who travel to Africa to visit countries that they share ancestry with;
they are building schools; they are building hospitals; they are
lobbying the U.S. Congress on behalf of issues that affect the
countries that they share ancestry with. They are learning languages.
They are starting study groups. They are adopting children. They are
naming children. People are taking this new found connection and using
the power and the passion that is connected to it to do some phenomenal
things. And I encourage you to consider that. But if you only do one
thing, I would encourage you to share what you know about your family
with another family member. Because it is important that we keep the
history of our our families alive. And the only way that is by passing
down the stories to future generations.