From the film: out of curiosity he discovered that he was a prince – ElSol.com.ar – Diario de Mendoza, Argentina

Jay Speights, an African American pastor from Maryland, USA, knew his ancestors had been slaves, but he could not find many more. Like many people today, she decided to connect to the Internet to discover the story of her family.

For this, he entered the DNA website called Ancestry.com and discovered that he was a distant cousin of a man named Houanlokonon Deka, a descendant of the Benin royal lineage, a small country that he many centuries ago, was the largest slave port in the world. West Africa.

Then Speights decided to do a second search and entered his data into another database comparing the DNA of African Americans and Africans. After a few minutes, the database gave a result. He had the DNA of the royal family.

Speights decided that he wanted to try to contact his distant family in Benin, and luck was on his side. A priest from Benin and his group visited his church in New York and Speights explained to him what he had learned through DNA testing.

Upon hearing this story, one of the Benin group members told him that he knew the king of this country badociated with that name and gave his phone number to Speights.

However, the first time that Speights, King Kpodegbe Toyi Djigla, was leading one of the Benin states, suspended him. The second time, the king pbaded the phone to his wife, Queen Djehami Kpodegbe Kwin-Epo, because she spoke English.

The queen asked her to send her pictures of her parents and grandparents, then she asked him an important question: what did he want from them? Speights said he only wanted answers about his past, what he had wanted for years.

"You are the descendant of King Deka, the ninth king of Allada who ruled from 1746 to 1765," wrote the queen on WhatsApp. "We would be happy to welcome you to your home, dear prince."

What happened next can only be compared to a movie. Speights went to Benin and, on the way down from the plane, he found that the photos that he had sent to the Queen were reproduced on large posters hung at the airport . They said, "Welcome to the kingdom of Allada, the country of your ancestors."

Besides the posters, a festival with hundreds of people dancing and playing instruments was also waiting for him. It was a party for him.

Speights spent the next week in what he called "the school of princes". He became familiar with local customs and visited several Allada sites, in addition to meeting important personalities from the region. They sat on a throne, gave him white robes with lace, which means that he is a church man, and they gave him several crowns.

According to Speights, he is the first member of the Deka clan to return to the kingdom of Allada.

However, not everything is a movie story. The story is not painless. According to the Washington Post, the king, who is probably the ancestor of Speights, is one of those who captured and sold slaves to European merchants. People who sold in general were members of rival tribes or prisoners of war.

Benin has never fully recognized its role in the transatlantic slave trade. When Speights asked his new family how he could have arrived in the United States, he was told that members of the royal family had not sold their own people. "No matter who did what, we all ended up in the same circumstances," said Speights. "In the chains," he added.

However, although it was painful, Speights does not regret it. He accepted "real tasks", such as promoting Allada and helping to bring clean water and electricity to the community where his family lives. Speights thinks it's important that people know the stories of their families.