How our journey began

Except for its indigenous people, all present day Americans come from somewhere else. This page tells a story and provides some insights into one of the places our distant ancestors and relatives came from. Few of us have just one ethnic group, tribe or region of origin because of the known historical forced or unforced migrations of past human populations. 

What this means is that even though we are telling a story about our ancestors who lived in what is present day Benin, we would reasonably expect to find ancestors who also carry the genetic legacy of other African populations as well. In other words, we, like them, have multiple genetic origins. 

Commerce, in both humans and commodities has been profitable for both Europeans and Africa for centuries. We all know that slavery and the European slave trade were integral parts to the transport of people of Africans to various parts of the world. 

Some captured Africans were enslaved internally in African kingdoms, others were transported to Arabia, but almost an equally large number were transported to the Americas (South, Central, North America and the Caribbean). Our diasporan Deka story is a circuitous one but begins in the area that is today called the Republic of Benin.