Imagine

Anyone who does genealogical research can tell you it's absolutely addicting! I would say I research something everyday, most times for hours! I can never seem to get enough of knowing who it is I am, where it is I came from, and who paved the way. Our ancestors are amazing! If we think we have it tough now, how do we think we would have scored back then where there was slavery, wars, and being poor. We think working 8 to 6 is modern day slavery, but imagine working from sun up to sun down in the field! Imagine being torn away from your children, and your mothers, not just here in the States, but imagine that they were way across the ocean away. Some of our ancestors never saw the world change and slavery end, they probably couldn't imagine it ever happening; some of them died in bondage. So every day that I do research I ask myself, why?  I am always directed back to this very wise quote: "Ifa teaches that we cannot know who we are if we do not know our ancestors going back seven generations.  If our understanding of our ancestors is distorted by our understanding of history, true self appreciation is not possible" (exerpt taken from Awo Falokun Fatunmbi"