African American icon Oprah Winfrey discusses a DNA test discovering she had some Native American ancestry.
She did the test in 2006 and was surprised by the results.
“I thought I was going to find that I was Zulu and it actually turned out that I was some Native American and mostly from the Kpelle tribe off the coast of Liberia in Africa.”
Oprah told Native Affairs she found the results “interesting”. But she sees a little bit of herself in all cultures and people.
She attributes this openness to the success of her talk show. The Oprah Winfrey Show was a global phenomenon and made her one of the most powerful and influential women in the world.
“I just saw myself as the audience. I realised that at the time I was in 156 different countries. But it didn’t matter to me what country or continent or background you came from. I knew at the heart of every story, that my sadness, my pain, my joy and my triumph, is the same as yours”.