Leon Freeman has long been interested in his African ancestry. For some time, he had thought about DNA testing to see if he could make more of a connection.

DNA testing linked Leon Freeman to Gumar Chian Gong (right), which led to this visit to Douala, Cameroon. At left is Gumar Chian Gong’s wife. (Photos by Leon Freeman)

Neh Julie Chian Gong – one of Freeman’s “DNA cousins” – acted as his guide. His gifts from Memphis included a copy of the Tri-State Defender.

“Every DNA cousin wanted me to go somewhere with them,” said Freeman, who learned that one of his “cousins” took motorcycle riding very seriously.

“Everyone on my daddy’s side was short and I could see some resemblance,” said Freeman, matching smiles with a “DNA cousin.”

So several months ago, Freeman swabbed both sides of his jaw, placed the samples in a sealed container and forwarded them – along with about $300 – to one of the DNA-testing companies that offers its service to people who want to make the African hookup. On his father’s side surfaced connections to the Bamileke ethnic group in Cameroon in West Africa and the Bubi of Equitorial Guinea.

Freeman, a grassroots international traveler, had been to 12 countries in Africa, but not those two.

After learning of the connections, he called the American embassy in Cameroon and then the Cameroon embassy in Washington, D.C. Eventually he made contact with the social science department at the University of Douala (in Cameroon) and someone familiar with the people Freeman now calls his “DNA cousins.”

A trip was in order and it wasn’t cheap, he said, adding that the airfare was about $3,000. He traveled from Memphis to Atlanta to Paris to Douala, the largest city in Cameroon with an estimated 3 million people in 2008.

Dressed in jeans, tennis shoes and a T-shirt that proclaimed his connection to Memphis, Freeman landed himself a seat on a couch next to Gumar Chian Gong, who had provided DNA swabs that yielded Freeman’s match to the Bamileke and Bubi peoples.

“The trip was just totally unbelievable,” said Freeman, 65. “I kept saying, ‘this is where it all came from.’ As I saw the area, I said this is where my great, great, great-grandfather came from. Although the DNA (-testing company) can tell you where it (his DNA) came from, they can’t tell you if it was this person or that person.”

Freeman said his “DNA cousins” were excited about him.

“It was because I was family, DNA family….Every DNA cousin wanted me to go somewhere with them, go to their house and have dinner and all. I did that.”

Neh Julie Chian Gong, Gumar Chian Gong’s daughter, escorted Freeman. Douala – he soon learned – is a city most modern in many respects, including often bumper-to-bumper traffic.

And at each stop where he met a “DNA cousin,” pictures were in order. “Everyone on my daddy’s side was short and I could see some resemblance. I saw a lady who looked like my great aunt.”

Freeman, who earlier embraced the “freedom name” Baruti Ajanaku as a connection to his African roots, was given the name Afanwi, which means God has given you to us, by his “cousins.”

Some of his “cousins” invited him to accompany them as they meditated with the ancestors on one of the two Sundays in an eight-day week.

“I’m thinking that we are going to go to a cemetery. We went into this building with nothing but human skulls on shelf after shelf. They had drums and went to communicating. I didn’t know what to expect,” he said.

“They bury the person and after about six or seven years they take the skull and put it with other ancestors.”

Freeman said he was asked to spread the word that the ancestors want forgiveness for selling their people into slavery.

He spent one week in Cameroon and another in Equatorial Guinea. Determined to soak up the culture, Freeman had varied experiences, taking in a funeral – a three-day party – in one instance and a nightclub in another.

“If you think we can dance, I mean they be turning flips and everything and never miss a beat. Dance is so important in that culture.”

As his journey continued, he visited the palace of one of the regional chiefs outside the city of Douala, a crafts market and the old slave dungeons, which made an indelible impression.

While on the trip, Freeman lectured at two high schools and at one of the universities. During a conversation with a university professor, he was asked whether he thought African Americans were better off having gone through their experiences in America.

There are, he said, achievements that African Americans likely never would have made in Africa. He quickly adds: “The only thing that I see is the psychological damage….When I tell people about the homicide rate (in America), they can’t believe it.”

Freeman envisions a reunion of all his Freeman relations in America and sharing his experience with his “DNA cousins.”

For years, Freeman has lectured about his travels, and now he has a much more personal story to tell.