Leonard Pitts
The
Miami Herald
November 7 and November 14,
2004
Table of
Contents:
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| Columnist Leonard
Pitts Jr. used DNA tests to trace his heritage. |
Photographer Sarah
J. Glover accompanied Pitts on his
journey. | In August 2003, Herald
columnist Leonard Pitts wrote a moving essay about using
the African Ancestry DNA-testing service to determine
his ancestors' origins. His mother, he found, was from
the Songhay people in Niger. His father, from the Mende
of Sierra Leone.
"Knowing that gave me a gladness
that's hard to articulate. Like finding the jigsaw's
missing piece. I felt a quiet joy. It made me want to
know more. Made me want to go there," Pitts
wrote.
Last July, the Pulitzer Prize winner did
so. Joining him was Sarah J. Glover, photographer from
The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Herald's sister
newspaper, who was already in Africa thanks to winning
the National Association of Black Journalists Ethel
Payne Fellowship.
This is their
story.
Part
I: Journey Yields Glimpse of Missing Past
Part
II: The Missing Past: Homeland sojourn reveals so
little, yet so much
- Mende
Village
- War
Talk
- Poorest
Nation
- Foul
Smell, Too
- American
Marvels
- The
Question
- Forgiveness
- Interventions
- In
A Word
- Balancing
Act
- At
Amputee Camp, Bitterness and
Questions
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