Riyaz Patel
Hollywood star Samuel L. Jackson has traced his roots to Gabon and has just become a Gabonese citizen.
His new passport was handed to him by Gabon Foreign Minister Alain-Claude Bilie-By-Nze.
The American actor has been in Gabon since Tuesday, July 23, for the filming of an episode of his documentary ‘Enslaved: The Slave Trade as told from the Ocean Floor.’
The episode is titled “Origins” because the Hollywood star is, according to a DNA test, a descendant of the Benga people in Gabon.
Jackson was received by the president and his wife and also met with the Benga King, Marcel Ta Nkombuet.
He visited Loango National Park and walked along the waterways of the Akanda Forest, a journey undertook by slaves that symbolised the last stage of their journey.
In 2013, the PBS series “Finding Your Roots” hosted by Henry Louis Gates Jr. revealed that Jackson, Condoleezza Rice and Ruth Simmons had traced their ancestry to Central Africa, particularly Gabon and Cameroon.
DNA studies concluded that Jackson’s genetic identity resembled the Benga tribe in Gabon, Ruth Simmons (Brown University President) affiliates herself to the Kota tribe in Gabon and Condoleezza Rice (former U.S Secretary of State) to the Tikar tribe in Cameroon.
