The black consciousness movement of the 1960s also produced a renewed interest in connecting with Africa, said Earl Ofari Hutchinson, an African American commentator in Los Angeles.
In addition to Obama and the popularity of DNA testing, the latest round of interest, Hutchinson and others said, is driven by factors including: increased affluence among African Americans, political stability in African nations such as Liberia and a new Africa Channel offered to 1.5 million households by Time Warner Cable.
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In recent years, Winfrey has built a school in South Africa. Rap superstar Shawn "Jay-Z" Carter has launched plans to build 1,000 water pumps throughout the continent. Comedian Chris Rock and his wife, Malaak Compton-Rock, have pitched in for schooling, basic needs and medical care for South African orphans and grandmother-led households.
Robert L. Johnson, Black Entertainment Television founder, is building a $12-million, four-star beachfront resort in Liberia and has put together a $30-million private equity fund to aid Liberian entrepreneurs.
In 2001, Bishop Charles E. Blake, pastor of the 22,000-member West Angeles Church of God in Christ, launched Save Africa's Children, which has served 200,000 children with AIDS in 21 African countries. But smaller congregations are reaching out to Africa as well.
Minister Tony Dunn of the 2,000-member Zoe Christian Fellowship of Whittier leads regular missions to Africa and said he is talking to three other Los Angeles-area black churches interested in launching them as well.
"Our focus was on civil rights in the '60s," Dunn said. "Now that we're progressing and getting better economically and socially, I believe we're more open to our capacity to be mindful to others."
For Washington, his DNA test led him to visit Sierra Leone for the first time in 2006. He said he was astonished that the faces of the people looked so much like his own relatives, and that the African landscape had shown up in his dreams.
One of the walls in his Burbank office is covered with 15 photos documenting that trip: a boy hunting for clean water, a newborn near death in Washington's arms and a child who had received plastic surgery. Other mementos include a harvest mask, a jar of Namibian soil and his chieftain's hand-carved wooden staff.
Since then, Washington has leaped into a flurry of activities. They include establishing his Gondobay Manga Foundation -- named after a heroic African warrior whose name was given to Washington at his 2006 chieftain induction ceremony. His Coalhouse Productions company is making a documentary about Sierra Leone.
That same year, Washington spoke at a White House summit on malaria and last year he joined Sierra Leone President Koroma's delegation to the United Nations and Washington.
The actor believes that "DNA has memory," that the calling to come home and help his people was embedded in his genes all along.
"I am who I was," Washington said. "This doesn't negate the love I have for the United States, but my real parents are Sierra Leone."
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teresa.watanabe@latimes.com
