I finally know the Truth! My parents got their DNA tests back and through my Mother’s Puerto Rican side I am not just a little bit African, I am a melting pot of many African tribes including Bantu, and portions of what comes up simply as Nigerian, the tribes of Senegal, the Congo, and the Ivory Coast.
Not to mention the North Africans, which points to the possibility that the ‘Spaniards’ that came from the colony of The Canary Islands with the 125 families to replace the dying with Spanish stock, may have been the last tribe of The Moors that were never converted by the Muhammadan armies of Arabia.
I may be able to allegedly pass for White if I steer clear of the sun, as the concept of what people consider White and Brown and Black changes like a rapidly shifting river of Politics, perception and power.
But now I know that many of my my ancestors came over through the Middle Passage on slave ships, and that Puerto Rico was not a monolithic home of just say the Yaruba tribe. I don’t have just one random African ancestor that gave me olive skin and a nice tan.
When I travel to West Africa I will have ancestors at nearly every port of call.
But what else??? Oh the fun surprise in my Mom side was a little bit of Viking and a touch of Jewish! I can finally say I have a little Jewish blood. Not much but as I finish the book, Jewish Pirates of The Caribbean, I can now imagine on of my own traveling to the Caribbean, searching for a Promised Land as the Inquisition followed closed behind with their torture devices and unholy fires.
My parents told me, “Tell Brains Gad he was right”, that the Jamaican producer was correct that I had Jewish blood. But also that I was right that a couple helping of African blood makes one look like a Sephardic Jew (wink).
“But Brains I am not Jewish” I said between takes at Earl Chinna Smith‘s house.
“You are, you just don’t know you are.”
But still exponentially less Jewish than famous anti-semites like Bobby Fischer, Richard Wagner, and Hitler. Because history is both ironic and terrifying, and racism and all ethnic prejudice is a special kind of stupid.
I also have lots and lots of European blood, which I am very proud of. Plenty of the British Isles and Viking from my Daddy’s side. Real Irish in there. My Pop’s Iberian blood may in fact be the stamp of the true Celts as Kathleen Creel Leppert hipped me to before I left for Jamaica.
I declare there is no so called race of Man I hope I am not! I would have cheered for handful of Han Chinese and did a dance Mongolian or Aborigine.
It’s just exciting to know who you are and where you fall into this great story, as refugees like the Irish ran from starvation to the richness of American soil, and where you might fit into the Black experience.
But as far as the mythic Taino blood of the people that named Jamaica and survived in Puerto Rico to mix with all comers, I am probably over 5% Native. But not nearly Indian as I am Black African. My mother is close to that 10-20% Taino admixture that defines the triracialialty of a Puerto Rican bloodline that is like a land of many rivers. The faces of Puerto Rico maybe the Apple pie eating future of a very sexy America.
The secrets of our history lie within us, and we have mixed for a long time. The Romans mixed up the European stock real good.
All People are Creates Equal and interracial dating is essential for the continued health of our species. Nobody was pure. Each slice of my pie is just a people that were stuck one place for too many thousands of years waiting for a chance to meet their genetic destiny to create me…and you.
Black is Beautiful and so is the palest ginger. But all my ginger brothers and sisters, please wear sunblock and fret not about marrying not gingers. Your magic mutation will never go away.
It’s evolution baby, and someday when on a mining colony as it was in a dark Scotttish castle, that fluorescent skin shall be quite useful.
We’re all good. Only the inbreeding of the Royals in any tribe is the source of degradation of our universally noble stock. Queen Victoria’s children paid that price and so did the men in the trenches who died because of the nuttery of not letting in a little bit of Chocolate.
It turns out I am indeed a cup of Hot Chocolate with ample amounts of exotic cremes and some complex White Sugar.
But to deny my African heritage would be not necessarily criminal, just sad.
Black has always been beautiful.
Davin’s new song has been released and is fast becoming a dancehall hit. Listen here on Reggaeville: DAVIN MICHAEL STEDMAN & ANTHONY RED ROSE – FREE YOUR MIND FEAT. SLY & ROBBIE WITH LENKY MARSDEN
– Musician and writer Davin Michael Stedman has many musical ventures and is one of the driving forces behind the Staxx Brothers. He has just returned from three weeks of networking and reporting from Kingston, Jamaica.
