Motherland: A Genetic Journey

I don't know how this got so low a score.I cried for hours after I watched this and couldn't avoid the questions it poses about identity and belonging.If you are of African descent,actually if you have ancestry from anywhere you should see it because it explore what it means to have an origin and an identity.Bula's story is especially honest and the most moving,Mark Anderson comes in innocently and leaves very wise.Jacqueline is fascinating you don't judge her for identifying with her white ancestry because there is something so very English about her manner and being,and evident in her face only concealed by her colour.The documentary is only more moving for people of African descent in the west and anyone of slave ancestry because our origin is so well hidden and because you easily forget at times just how you ended up here.One of the best and most moving documentaries I've ever seen.

In 2000, when "Motherland" was filmed, using DNA to trace your African roots for real, it seemed like science fiction. Now, everybody is doing it. What a change in a few short years. The participants in the film come from all walks of life: school teachers, social workers, musicians. Jacqueline Harriott (one of the three protagonists searching their genetic ancestors) is the only one connected to "fame" (she is the sister of TV cook Ainsley Harriott), and the film modestly makes no mention of this.

This must be one of the rare instances when a British documentary film by blacks and for blacks has fostered an entire branch of popular science, in this case genetic ancestry research. Perhaps the popular scientific impact is comparable only to the Apollo moon landings and the subsequent rise of popular astronomy.

Peter Forster and Susan Gurney