The search engines have fouind us...

Believe it or not, after not quite a month up and running (it was only on May 13th 2005 that we built and launched the website), one of the major search engines, Yahoo! has found us! As of Saturday June 11th, 2005, at about 10am Descendants of Mandi is now visible to Yahoo and all search engines that use Yahoo! as their back-end. This is a very recent development, because as recently as Thursday June 9th we were still not showing up on any search engines. It will only be a matter of time before the other major search engine Google finds us. If you want to test it out, go to the Yahoo link above and type in "Descendants of Mandi" or "Mandi Williams."

Doing so should produce a list that includes our website, usually wtihin the first 6 or 7 results. For me, that second search phrase is particularly exciting, because the peoples of many cultures, including many of the peoples of Africa, believe that if we remember our ancestors names, and call them by name, then they achieve a type of immortality. Remembered thus, our ancestors will stand with us in times of struggle, and support us in our times of greatest need. To quote one of the characters in the movie "Amistad" in these times of our greatest need, our ancestors must stand with us, because in that moment, we are the ONLY REASON THAT THEY EVER EXISTED.

To think that now, any time someone puts the name "Mandi Williams" or "Descendants of Mandi" into one of these search engines her name will appear...that should be especially satisfying to us...in a way, through the website Descendants of Mandi and the power of the Internet... it's as though the African girl who struggled to survive the Middle Passage and the horrors of slavery, still lives to share her story. That is powerful.