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New Haven woman considers her roots on trip to Africa

NEW HAVEN’S CATHARINE NOEL, right, talks with Cathrine Mokadi Malakai at the Punda Maria rest camp, at Kruger National Park in South Africa this past November. Noel learned about the depth of knowledge Malakai has of her family in Africa, while recognizing that her own family, as part of the African diaspora, has less knowledge of their heritage. Photo by Dale Cockrell

Like many other African Americans, I can only trace my family lineage back to one or maybe two generations. There is not a great deal of written information to search for when you were enslaved. The names were changed once they came off the slave ships, it was not their doing, but by their slave owners. What were my people’s original names? What tribe did they come from?