What is my Ethnicity

+4 votes
225 views
What is my ethnicity
WikiTree profile: Banele Mlungu
in WikiTree Help by Banele Mlungu G2G Crew (750 points)

Doing a web search on your last name, it is apparently of Bantu origin (Bantu being a very large language family). There are a large number of Bantu languages spoken in the southern half of Africa, perhaps between 440 and 680 distinct Bantu languages, spoken by many distinct ethnic groups.

Whether or not the company you tested your DNA with can give a good ethnicity estimate depends on the number of people that have tested with it.

For example, a number of years ago my wife did her DNA test with Ancestry and they originally said she was 40-50% “Native American” which originally meant any indigenous ancestry in the Americas. We knew her ethnicity was Mexican, hence Mexican Indian. Over the years as more people tested this was refined, and currently identifies her ancestry coming from central Mexico, which we know to be correct because we have been able to document her ancestry back to people from Central Mexico identified in the records as “Indio.”

So if you DNA results are now presently very general, say “Southern Africa,” in the future, as more people are tested, this will be refined. In my wife’s case, her estimates were revised 3 or 4 times.

I’m Xhosa origin and before I was 1 year old I spoke Xhosa until 4 years old and then I gave up speaking Xhosa because I was fostered by a half Malaysian and half Indian foster mom and then my foster wanted to adopt me and youngest brother that is 14 years old which he is also Xhosa and he didn’t speak the language at all since he was fostered with me when I was 4 years old me and my youngest brother is adopted and is the Xhosa people are one of the  original South African people? please try to research on that and me and my youngest brother are Xhosa royalty me and my youngest brother  have royal blood and and me and my youngest brother have royal family and I hope the Xhosa people is one of the first people that is living in South Africa and thank you so much for helping me with this it’s great pleasure for me to my ethnicity background☺️.

Wikipedia has a length article on the Xhosa people that you might find interesting. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xhosa_people

If possible, try to maintain your ability to speak Xhosa, as language is one of the things that define us. Although it can be difficult to maintain proficiency in a language if you do not have the opportunity to use it often. In my experience with languages from high school and college, if you learn to read the language it stays with you longer. I can read German and French much better than I can speak it! 

Wikipedia also has an article on the Xhosa language. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xhosa_language I am interested in languages in general, unfortunately I find the Wikipedia language articles to be quite technical, and difficult to read as I have no educational background in linguistics.

Best of luck in your future research.

2 Answers

+3 votes
 
Best answer
Hi Banele, go to FamilyTreeDNA where you tested and sign in. At the top, you will see 'Results and Tools' hover over that. A list will drop down and hover over 'Autosomal DNA'. Another list pops out click on 'MYOrigins' in that list. That is where you will find your ethnicity break down.
by Laura DeSpain G2G6 Pilot (433k points)
selected by Susan Laursen
+1 vote
I see that you have a DNA test so if you are asking about your Ethnicity connected to your DNA test, you will need to go to the company where you tested and find the tab for Ethnicity results and see what your DNA test has indicated.

I hope this helps.
by Virginia Fields G2G Astronaut (1.3m points)
I went on to my dna test on FamilyTreeDNA and it’s not showing my ethnicity and I don’t know how to see my ethnicity and I don’t know my ethnicity background and the DNA test on wkikitree is just giving my family tree not evens my ethnicity and please help me with solving on what’s my ethnicity and I had parents that never got married and they just gave birth to me in 2004 and I’m from South Africa

There are a couple of Wikipedia articles that, while not answering your specific question, will give you some background:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethnic_groups_in_South_Africa

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bantu_peoples_of_South_Africa

What’s the most use ethnicity for my last name Mlungu?

From what I can find, which is somewhat limited, it appears to be primarily Xhosa, but may also be Zulu. The Xhosa and Zulu appear to be both ethnically and linguistically related, both descending from the Nguni. The Nguni may have come from the Great Lakes region (the region of Lake Victoria and Lake Tanganyika), although some historians say they originated in western Central Africa, and migrated into Southern Africa 7000 years ago (5000 BC). See

https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/xhosa

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nguni_people

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