AFRICAN DNA

Where are you from?’. There are differences between the terms: heritage, ancestry, ethnicity, nationality, culture, religion, race and naming where you live, when explaining where you are ‘from’. For example, you might be born in Devon, live in Scotland, have one parent who was born in France, and a grandparent who emigrated from Ghana.

I have six mixed race children who were born in London, so could they be labelled English, British, mixed race, black, white, Jamaican heritage, black British, BAME? How do they define themselves, if at all? Do these words matter? Some terms can be fine, others uneasy or very offensive, in different circumstances and in different time periods.

DNA TESTING

DNA testing can take people back from knowing which country their ancestor lived in, to specifying an ethnicity given by the DNA testing company. Different companies test differently, analyse the results somewhat differently and reveal the results differently. If you had enough money, you could test with more than one company, to make comparisons and look for any differences. To increase