Oprah is a Zulu?

From the BBC:

The African-American chat-show host announced during a recent visit to South Africa that she had had a DNA test that had shown her to be a Zulu.She also told South Africans she felt “at home” in the country. “I went in search of my roots and had my DNA tested, and I am a Zulu,” Ms Winfrey said at a seminar in Johannesburg last week. Professor Himla Soodyall of South Africa’s National Health Laboratory Service said it was likely that Oprah Winfrey would have taken a mitochondrial DNA test.

Problem is, that doesn’t really mean much of anything in regards to, say, the reality of Zulu history, which began as just one of many tribes in South Africa in the 18th century. It’s sort of like me saying that I could genetically link my ancestry to American colonists in North Carolina, when in fact 300-400 years ago is not enough to give any real reliability.

There is not much to distinguish between various linguistic groups, particularly the different language groups spoken in southern Africa, because they have diversified more recently – perhaps within the past 1,000-1,500 years – than genetic differences which have been evolving in our species for about 150,000 years ago,” she said. This could, however, explain how Ms Winfrey’s DNA matched with a sample from a Zulu person, even though most African-Americans have ancestors who have been traced to west Africa as a consequence of the slave trade. According to most historical accounts, the Zulu nation was consolidated only after the departure of slaves from west Africa to the Americas.

Finally, considering Ms. Winfrey’s success and wealth, I really, really wonder how true this is:

“I’m crazy about the South African accent,” she said. “I wish I had been born here.”