Me:ku (Welcome)
to My Site!
The name of my website, Nosy Ambiroa, derives from the Malagàsy words “Nosy” meaning island and “Ambiroa” meaning soul. This name honors my ancestral connections to the islands of the Caribbean, coastal tribes in West & Central Africa, Madagascar, and Turtle Island, the Indigenous name for the Americas. The presence of water and the shoreline have long been sources of comfort and grounding in my life.
A picture of me wearing a Malagasy lambahoany.
Note: Although this website is a digital space, I still reside in Lenapehoking. Therefore, it is only right to pay respect to the Indigenous peoples of the land I am inhabiting.
Land Acknowledgment in Yesą:sahį:
Hena Amai bi:wa. Wāktāka Ramapough-Lenape, piláhuk. Yima ya-tī-pu-Yuke-wa nēi. Mima Lenape amą:i onąhé. Lenape Yesą nikas, “Amai nikas Lenapehoking Mįgikohane:la.” Mąkyądoste:kise Lenapehoking. Amą:i. bi:wa.
(This land acknowledgment was inspired by Corey Roberts’ land acknowledgment, see: Roberts, Corey. (2020). A Grammar Sketch of Tutelo-Saponi (Master’s thesis, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA).)
English translation:
Thank you, Mother Earth. Thank you to the Ramapough Lenape people. You have lived here. We are standing on Lenape Land. The Lenape people say the land says, “Lenapehoking is my name.” We love Lenapehoking. Thank you to the land/the land is good.
About Me
Introduction in Yesą:sahį:
Kihoe hu:kmekureme:čʰen! Mįyątipi:wa mįgikohane:la. Mima wahta:ka Yesą nikas Lukaîri, nikas Kauwets'a:ka nikas Powhatan. Mima ąyaa sapi, Yorùbá nikas Gàsy nikas Edo. Lenapehoking amą:i watíwa Amanishuck atʰí: mįgi:tǫwi Yesáh amá onąhé. Yesa:sahį nikas Malagasy nikas Kaliponam owakláka. Hena Amai Bi:wa. Ale:wa!
Introduction in Malagàsy:
Salama! Jala ty anara’ko Baka Lenapehoking raho telo amby roapolo tao raho. Tea’ko Mihina Sakafo. Misaotra.
Introduction in Kalipona:
Jala Mįyątipi:wa Simpa niri. 24 chiriko nào. Amanishuck-na nukuya. Lenapehoking narímetoyem.
Introduction in English (Explaining My Complex Family History and Intersectional Identity):
Greetings, my name is Jala (Jay-lah) Mįyątipi:wa Simpa. The plant at the top of this page called the Croton cuprolepis, native to Madagascar, shares my first name, Jala. Mįyątipi:wa means “I am happy” in Yesà:sahį, one of my ancestral languages. It began as a personal affirmation and later became a loving name given by my family. Simpa (or Simpo) is my Indigenous African family surname inherited by my Edo 5th great grandparents: Tasso & Minda Simpo, which I proudly carry to honor them. Simpa (or Simpo) means ‘what I desire’ or ‘what I asked for.’ In the Yoruba language, it is associated with having a strong bond with one's family.
Image Source: The Wilson Quarterly
I am a Yėsą Indigenous woman of the Occaneechi Hayes and Freeman families from Mecklenburg, Virginia. My Munford/Mumford ancestors were Free People of Color initially indentured/enslaved to the Mumford family, documented Indian traders along the Great Occaneechi Trading Path and Fort Christanna.
My family’s roots span Akų:čuk within Amanishuck (North Carolina/Virginia Piedmont), Corrowaugh within Tsenacommacah (Virginia Tidewater), Early, Stewart, and Clay counties, Georgia, Henry County, Alabama, and Edgefield County, South Carolina. My heritage also extends to the Caribbean (Yamayeka/ St. Elizabeth's Parish, Jamaica, Caya Hico/Turks & Caicos, St. David's Island, Bermuda, Ichiroiganaim/St. Michael's, Barbados, Kairi/Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago), Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, and the US Southwest (New Mexico) via the Indian slave trade and the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. My Afro-Native Bryant ancestors were enslaved on the Snowfield plantation within the Tuscarora Indian Woods reservation before being forced to Johnston, North Carolina, and eventually to Stewart County, Georgia.
As a descendant of African and Native people, both enslaved and Free People of Color, my family history is marked by paper genocide, the intentional erasure of Indigenous identity through official records. Our story is shaped by the Indian and Atlantic slave trades and forced migrations across the Indian Ocean and the internal slave trade, where some of my ancestors were forced to travel on foot from VA/SC/NC/MD to GA and AL. During Jim Crow in the 1900s, my ancestors migrated north to Lenapehoking (New Jersey) and Ithaca, New York, to escape anti-miscegenation laws and anti-Black/anti-Indigenous systemic racism. While many migrated, some branches remained in their homelands, and since the 2000s, some descendants have moved back.
Image Source: Slave Voyages, "Overview of the slave trade out of Africa, 1500-1900."
My ancestry includes Malagasy (Merina), reflecting both East African Bantu and Southeast Asian heritage, along with West and Central African (Edo, Kalabari, Yorùbá, Igbo, Fulani, Wolof, Fon, Mende, and others) and North African-associated Canary Islands (Guanche) lineages, as well as Eastern Woodlands (Occoneechee Yesą, Kauwests’aka King line Θkwarí•nę urʔcę́hseh clan, Powhatan and others), Caribbean (Taíno/Lukku-Cairi), Southwestern/Southern Indígena, and European roots from enslavement, interracial couples, & Scots-Irish ancestors who were indentured servants. I have English, Irish, Scottish, French Huguenot, German, Dutch, Finnish, Portuguese, and Spanish ancestries. Raised in Lenapehoking (New Jersey), I bring the perspective of a neurodivergent, disabled person to my work in decolonization, healing, and Afro-Indigeneity. With a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology (minor in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies) and an MSW, I am devoted to preserving ancestral histories through storytelling and genealogy, honoring the many paths that have shaped my identity.
Image Source: Cambridge University Press,"Indigenous Groups in Spanish Americas Targeted for Crown-Sanctioned Slavery, 1547-1620."
The Indian Slave Trade, which spanned from 1492 to 1880, involved the forced enslavement of an estimated 2 to 5.5 million Indigenous peoples across Turtle Island (the Americas). Enslaved Native individuals were not only exploited throughout the continent but were also transported overseas to regions such as Spain and North Africa (Brown University, 2017).
