The Bona Title. What It Means

by Dr. Abu Fofana | Jul 28, 2021

Etymology.
The word Bona has its root in the Mandingo dialect. It literary means family residence, a house, or a dwelling place.
Traditional Meaning & Practice.
The title Bona symbolizes chastity or a virgin. Only female family members receive the Bona title. Fofana-Nyei families, or Muslim parents, consider it a pride, joy, and honor to raise a girl child properly, teach her to cook, take care of the home and husband, and future children, and most importantly, marry as a chaste or virgin. Fofana and Nyei families usually add Bona to the given name of female children. If the child’s given name is Fatu or Massey or Setmuteh, the family will call her Bona Fatu, Bona Setmuteh, Bona Massey, to name a few examples.
Religious Meaning & Practice.
Various religions, including Islam, Christianity, and Judaism, encourage chastity and discourage fornication by men and women. Islam, popularly practiced by the Fofana-Nyei families, considers sexual intercourse outside of marriage as sinful. And except the sinners repent and ask Allah for mercy and forgiveness, they may be punished by Allah here or on the day of judgment.
Advantages of Living Up to the Bona Title.
Many good things can come out of practicing chastity or living up to the expectation of holding the Bona title. Here are, however, three that stand out.
The first is that being chaste is an honor code of moral conduct and a magnate to other families, especially Islamic families who cherish, respect, and desire to marry a virgin woman. In other words, it’s easier to find a husband in most societies when a woman is a virgin than when she is not a virgin
The second is that abstaining from sexual activities before we marry makes us truthful and honest believers and followers of what the Quran or the Bible commands us to do. Only Allah, and not Satan, is our guide.
The third is not having children out of wedlock. While unchastity seems widely practiced in open and promiscuous societies, the social impact on our communities and the world is reaching a crisis point. And most families, especially religious-minded singles, who want to put God first in their relationship, are drawing closer to those who cherish and practice chastity and morality. The internet is replete with sites that focus on bringing religious singles together into matrimony.

How to Carry on a Genealogical Research

by Dr. Abu Fofana | Jul 21, 2021

Genealogical research is a life-long project. Tidbits by tidbits, you could build a family tree, and that tree will grow into a forest, depending on the size of your family. The road to the discovery of our ancestors is a human journey. It is often replete with struggle, suffering, success, outstanding achievement, devastating failure, death, survival, comedy, and tragedy.
Get ready to embrace the unexpected. If your genealogy research results show that one of most of your ancestors lived an outlaw life, make sure you unearth aspects and detail of what they did and why. Do not judge or condemn. Our ancestors did not have the luxury like us, but they were the cause and reason for our existence. The focus should be on the sacrifices that they endure to make us whom we have become. The leverage you have is that you are still alive, and one of the good things that can come out of genealogical studies is knowledge of your past and the ability to be resilient and focus and live better than your ancestors.
Here are steps to take to achieve better results from genealogical research studies:

1. Pen down your purpose and goal and what you are particularly passionate about the family on a piece of paper. The objective should include but is not limited to building a first-generation family tree that has your dad, mother, sister, brothers, maternal and paternal uncles, and aunts. Your mothers-in-law and fathers-in-law, sister, and brothers-in-law are also parts of the tree. Another goal is to make your children be part of this venture.
2. Your overall vision is to learn as much as you can about yourself through the family heritage-culture, ceremonies, festivities, religion, tradition-improve relationships to your family and always try to achieve more, learn more, and get better off than your parents.
3. Find the facts. Ask your parents about what they know about your grandparents. Ask questions like where did they come from and live? What were the occupations? Interview seniors, discuss the issue individually and in a group, launch a survey, and ask relatives and other people what they know about your family.
4. Consult secondary sources or literature review. In other words, go to libraries and read books, articles, journals, lectures, reports about the family story—Surf the internet and social media channels. Take notes on iPad, computer, cellphone, or notepad.
5. Search through the data, information, and answers you have gathered. Chronologically organize and analyze what you have collected about the family. Identify patterns, relevant stories, and trends.
6. Write the story or the results and share them.
   Ask info@fofananyei.com if you need help building your Family Tree, collecting information about your ancestors, and writing stories about them.

Thoughts on Genealogy

by Dr. Abu Fofana | Jul 21, 2021

The genealogical research and discovery you make about your family are markers and legacies for your ancestry and future generation. These revelations or discoveries about culture, environment, and biography determine your strengths as a person. They can guide and prevent you from your family weakness such as disease and other mishaps endemic into your family. If your research reveals, for instance, that most of your family members have died from a common illness, you can make changes to your life that may prevent you from such a disease. They also make it easier for posterity to quickly discover the past and build a better future for themselves and their family and relative. In other words, if we carry on genealogical research correctly, it will focus on posting genealogical research questions about family events, relationships, and biographical factors. Questions like who the first ancestry was, where were they born, died, and buried, are the root events that generate significant family discoveries. Essential questions about relationships are about who their spouse-wife or husband-were and their children. Knowing our ancestors helps us create healthy relationships with families and relatives. It also helps us better expand our individual and collective horizon of our shared history, experiences, culture, lifeways, and idiosyncrasies. Above all, genealogical research, like history in general, can reveal the exciting and more fulfilling aspects of who we are and those stories we often do not want others to know about us.
Genealogical research studies have the following benefits:
It helps discover a sense and knowledge of yourself
Every person has a genetic and distinct code characteristic of and native to your parents, environment, society, or country. Discovering your ancestry is akin to deciphering that unique code that connects you to who you are and lets you know why you behave in specific ways. Chances are, if you are ignorant that specific cancerous diseases, high blood pressure, and diabetes run in the family, and most have died because of it, you may become affected as well. However, if you knew about this through genealogy and made healthy choices sooner than later, you may survive the family scourge. In other words, know full well who you are and where you come from can prolong your life by minimizing the risk of death or severe sickness.
It helps you thrive more than what your parents had to do to live
The history of our family or ancestry is a microcosm of our collective family history. It is replete with stories of victims, losers, victors, villains, and heroes. The victims or victors can be us, other family members, or our ancestors. However, it is always fulfilling to know that your parents and grandparents endured tremendous odds to take care of the family or were parts of those who fought for their country’s independence. Moreover, knowing the extent of hardships, tragedies that they had to go through to achieve what they dreamed and aspired can be a source of courage, perseverance, and resilience for our life.
It connects you to the past, present, and the future
Knowledge of your ancestry has profound psychological benefits; it connects us to memories, no matter how unfulfilling they are. It gives us a chance to become a whole part of our heritage and invigorate kindred spirits. When we become fully embraced and practiced our heritage, tradition, celebrations, culture, we too can pass these legacies to our children and their children, thus making the lives of all of us fulfilling.
It increases the knowledge of the history of the family and better connects with civil society and the world at large
Finally, because our stories are parts of our collective history, researching family history offers the chance to have a deeper connection to share experiences, struggles, trials, tribulations, oppression, and triumph across the globe.

Family Tree

by Dr. Abu Fofana | Jul 21, 2021