ANKOBIA6 PROGRAM

"Ankobia" in Twi means those who lead the battle in commitment and courage.  Ankobia6 (A6), is a 'finding family roots' program for individuals or small groups of community residents.  It involves research, discovery and presentation (story-telling).  Participants move through six phases of global genealogy and history for beginners (A6):

A1. Why Roots?   A2. Autobiography   A3. Elders   A4. Sasha & Zamani (ancestors 'in' living memory and 'beyond' living memory)   A5. Afrika I Belong (deep ancestry)   A6. Bearing Tradition (sharing/story-telling event)

Do you run an organization in need of Family Research teaching? Are you coordinating your Family Reunion and want to make the most of it? Are you that 1 person taking responsibility for organizing all the wonderful family history (but feels like its a mess and scattered)? Our Ankobia6 (A6) program is for you. We are all aware of the toll that lack of self-knowledge and self-respect and mis-education can take on our community.  A6 helps:

  1. Build intelligent family research plans.

  2. Generate findings that carry values & traditions forward.

  3. Receive training in basic genealogy research, spreadsheet use, internet navigation and other skills needed to re-construct our own personal family history and align it to the wider global Ourstory.

RESEARCH SERVICES

“Do not be mistaken, the object of the man is not to make a carpenter, but the object of a carpenter is to make a man.”
— W.E.B. DuBois

About the Educator/Workshop Facilitator

    Bro. Joel Mackall is an award-winning Educator & Project Developer with the ReIdren Business Group based in Roxbury MA.  He was the co-founder of the SOS Living Museum, the Hidden History of Black Boston Tours, the Nubian Writer's Group and is a self-published author.  He has also served as secretary of the Cameroonians of Lowell Association, as an officer on the Warren Gardens Housing Cooperative board, on the advisory council of the Network of Immigrant and African American Solidarity and as a technology chairperson with the Black Community Information Center. 

    Bro. Joel presented "Excellence AND Culture: Operating Your Cooperative Better, Simpler and Truer" at the National Association of Housing Cooperatives Annual Conference in St. Thomas, US Virgin Islands and "Why Do We Black Folks Hate On Each Other?" at the Association for the Study of Classical African Civilizations' Ancient Egyptian Studies Conference in Newark, NJ.  He has led/facilitated numerous professional workshops in Greater Boston on topics including genealogy, African & world history, business design and technology at the Freedom House, Mother Caroline Academy, Warren Gardens, Roxbury Multi-Service Center, Roxbury Community College, Emerson College, Lesley College, South Bay House of Correction, almost all of the BPL neighborhood branches and Walden Square Technology Center (north Cambridge), in both English and Spanish. To learn more/contact Joel at SNLREIDREN or drop a message.

Projects & Awards

•Creative Community Fellow - National Art Strategies (2022)

•Fairmount Cultural Corridor Artist Commission Grant – for “Radical Welcoming: Docu-Poetry Workshop for Greater Upham’s Corner” (2021)

•Tufts Medical Center Community COVID-19 Relief & Recovery Program Grant – for Startup Design for Businesses & Non-profits (2021-2)

•Malcolm X Afrikan Achievers Award for outstanding community service, from the Black Community Information Center Inc. (2021)

•Small Business Startup/Design Program grant, from Berkshire Bank Foundation Community Building (2020)

•Fellowes Athenaeum Trust Fund grants for Technology Instruction at the Dudley Branch Boston Public Library (2014), Smartphone for Seniors (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019), Tracing our Roots / Facing Slavery – Family Genealogy (2006, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2020, 2022), Business Startup for Entrepreneurs (2020), African-American History Series (2021-2)

•Photography Exhibition: “African America in the Nile River Valley”, for the National Museum of Afro-American Artists (2019)

•Poetry/History Exhibition: “Hauntologies of David Walker City”, for the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture Grant, Codman Square Library Branch (2019)

•Creative Entrepreneur Fellowship - Business for Artists, for the Arts & Business Council of Greater Boston (2018)

•Hands-On Black History Learning Retreat, for the City of Boston Arts and Culture Opportunity Fund Grant (2017)

•Grove Hall Trust Fund Grant for African-American Genealogy programming (2016)

•Keeper of the Gardens Award for community service from Warren Gardens Housing Cooperative (2009, 2014)

•The Archie Williams Jr. Technology Award from the Freedom House Inc. (April 2010)

KEY GENEALOGY RESOURCES (links)


Prezi (excellent for sharing family history presentations)

Google Hangouts (good site for working together)

Most recent common ancestor & DNA - Incest & Folk-Dancing: Two things to be avoided

ReIdren: Black Genealogy Coaching, DIY Research Tools, and Family Tree Workshops