Motherland. 1, A genetic journey / producer, Tabitha Jackson ; director, Archie Baron ; Takeaway Media.

New York, NY : Filmakers Library, 2004.

English

In English.

1 online resource (90 minutes)

013000

Cut off from their ancestry by the three-hundred-year-long slave trade which uprooted 12 million people from Africa, three people are given the opportunity, through DNA searches, to reconnect with their roots. Through advances in DNA research and with the help of laboratories in the UK and America, the possibility arises that with a swab from the inside of a person's cheek they can trace back twelve or thirteen generations to the tribe of their ancestors. We follow three people in their search for their roots. Mark's search leads him from London to reconnect with the Kanuri tribe in southern Niger. Jacqueline's family comes from Jamaica. She is mixed race and research reveals one ancestor was a slave owner; she visits what was once his sugar plantation. Beaula has always felt a deep affinity with Africa. Her DNA test results lead her to Bioko island in Equatorial Guinea where the Bubi tribe still lives. There she is welcomed as a sister. For each person, the reconnection is emotional, but weighted also with unanticipated cultural differences. What is behind this longing to know? Strong feelings of "otherness" because of being dark skinned in white society. Motherland explores the emotional terrain of being cut off from one's roots. By following these intense journeys of rediscovery and re-connection, the film speaks to a wide range of identity issues in the African diaspora.

Title from resource description page (viewed April 06, 2016).

data file

Won 2004 Royal Television Society, UK, Best Science & Natural History
Won 2003 New York Festivals, Documentary

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