As part of the Decade of Return Initiative, Denita Madyun-Baskerville celebrated her 62nd birthday on May 29th with the Ban-Faaba Council at the Balanta B’urassa History and Genealogy Society in America’s headquarters in the Bairo Militar subdivision in Bissau, the capital city of Guinea Bissau.
From 1761 to 1815, records show that 6,534 Binham Brassa (Balanta people) were trafficked from their homeland and enslaved in the Americas. That’s an average of at least 121 Balanta per year. Denita Madyun-Baskerville is the first known female descendant of one of those people to return to the land of her ancestor.
Denita was born on May 29, 1959 to John H. Dues and Dorothy E. McCarter in Washington D.C. She was the seventh of eight children. In 1977, at the age of 18, Denita enlisted in the US Army and attended basic training at Fort Jackson, South Carolina. She attended Advanced Individual Training (Quartermaster Supply School) at Fort Lee, Virginia . Twenty-two years later she retired as First Sargent in the United States Army. In between, Denita did tours of duty in Germany and Hawaii and served as a Drill Sargent at Fort Dix in New Jersey. When asked what was the highlight of your service career, Denita said, “leading almost 150 soldiers in the 40th S&S Unit at Scholfield Barracks in Hawaii.”
In January, 2020, African Ancestry’s patrilineal test determined that Denita’s paternal ancestry is a 100% match with Balanta. According to Denita, “As soon as I received my test results, my immediate goal was to return to my ancestral homeland.”
“It’s the CONNECTION, the feeling…. This trip has fulfilled the desired of knowing where I am from,” said Denita. “Coming back home I feel like I belong. I KNOW where I am from. I would tell all Balanta in America, especially the women, that they need to return home. You have to FEEL it. You have to meet OUR people. You can travel all over the world, but returning to your ancestral homeland is TOTALLY different.”
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