How US lawmaker Carol Ammons traces ancestry to Paga, enskinned as Queen Mother

Illinois House of Representatives member Carol Ammons has pledged to devote the remainder of her public service to raising global awareness about the origins and lasting effects of the transatlantic slave trade while advocating reparative justice for people of African descent.

She said reconnecting descendants of enslaved Africans with their ancestral roots is essential to healing historical trauma and restoring identities lost through centuries of slavery.

Her remarks followed her enskinment as the Queen Mother for Peace and Development of the Paga Traditional Council in the Upper East Region after DNA findings traced her ancestry to the Nania community in Paga.

Describing the ceremony as a deeply emotional homecoming, the American legislator said the experience had strengthened her resolve to use her public office to champion reparations as a means of promoting justice, healing and sustainable development for Africa and its diaspora.

"We have been pressed on every side, but we have not been crushed as a people. Our great president, Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, said, Forward ever, backward never. Yes, we have been pressed, but we have never gone backwards. I thank you for allowing me to travel 5,900 miles back to Nyanya. The policy work I do focuses on the areas where human suffering is often the most hidden, yet the most severe.

"We work in healthcare, human services, consciousness awareness, and personal mastery. We want to build and restore. This is hallowed ground. And I intend to spend the rest of my years ensuring that people understand that the trafficking did not begin at the Cape. It did not begin in the dungeons. It began right here," she said.