Transcript for:
Exploring the Aeta Tribe's Heritage

Whenever people think of Asia, they think of the Great Wall of China, Tokyo, Chinese food, sushi, Bruce Lee Yokozuna, and the list goes on. but what if I were to tell you that the first people to inhabit many parts of Asia some tens of thousands of years ago were actually..... a bunch of black people and these brothers and sisters still live in many parts of Asia until this day! that's right, I'm here in the Philippines and I'm here with the Aeta tribe. they're the first ones to migrate out of Africa and here in Asia. so when we say this pan-african love, we really mean it. now give me five on the black hand side. in a trip to the Philippines I visited the Aetas, which is one of the many groups of Africans that migrated to many parts of Asia, some 20,000 to 70,000 years ago. They are one of the Negrito tribes of the Philippines. they're called Negrito which literally translates to little Negro or little black person. I began my journey in Manila and drove a few hours to their village in Subic. I hired a taxi driver to take me there and to also be my cameraman. I had no way of getting in contact with these groups of people beforehand, so I had no idea if they would embrace me or not. Now they stay in a village off the beaten path in Subic. it takes a bit of a hike just to get there, but when I arrived, they showed a brutha so much love. they even let me stay in their village for one night. and staying at their village was like being at a family reunion with all the familiar characters. you got your aunties there, you got your grandmother there, you got that one cousin that you click-tight with, you got your little nephews there, you got that one relative it looks like a celebrity from the 80s . Lionel Ritchie... Sing for me. Just to be close to you girl and let's not forget that funny but crazy uncle that still thinks he's a player. " we eat honey, it makes the body very strong. but you know it makes your (expletive) very strong. " the Philippines alone there are over 25 different Negrito tribes with a population of over 15,000 people. the village I'm staying at has over 300 families in Subic with over a thousand people. the community has structure and governance to it, with the chief as the leader, and then seven elders to have checks and balances to that chief. so if there are any disagreements or beefs within the community, these guys immediately squash it. now some of the Negritos are what you will call pure Negritos. while some are mixed with half Negrito, half Filipino. the diets consist of foods like wild boar, deer, yams, mushrooms, bananas rice, dried fish and of course, honey! while I was staying there, they were able to show me some of their traditional dances and tell me about some of their other traditions of their ancestors like buring the dead within trees. " say we use the trunk of the tree. you carve it just like a boat" "yeah just like a boat. just like a boat" yes oh so like it would put the person inside like this". the one interesting part of this trip is that I asked them about their past and they did not really record much of their history. which means most of their history is forgotten past the mid 1900s, when they were trained the United States military on jungle-survival during the Vietnam War To be continued... this is hard work wheres the fire "Different languages we have" "just like (expletive) Rock n Roll" "you're handsome" "I'm not a liar" he's a movie star if this is your first time to the channel and you want to follow more of the journey throughout Africa and the Diaspora then make sure you hit that subscribe button and that bell notification so you don't miss a thing. I'll see you guys on the next video. peace