No offense to my American and other New World friends like Alex, but I have to agree with Michael that you're leaving behind something vitally important. All of us here at home have to contend with our ancestral baggage, consciously or unconsciously, while you have run away from that pain and anguish. Of course it's easy for you to feel just fine being a Californian, New Yorker, or South African. That's what trauma does, allows us to forget. It's the same mechanism as birth or traumatic childhood abuse. We wipe ourselves clean and try to carry on as best we can. This might be the easy way to live your life, but there are many unresolved things lying underneath the surface waiting for you to address them. They're going to haunt you, in this life and for many lives to come.
Thing is, I don't really feel connected to South Africa as a whole, but to a rather small region of it. When I travel to other parts of the country, I feel a tiny degree of being culturally and environmentally out of step. So I assume my sense of a home place is based on where my upbringing took place. I'm also sure these kinds of cultural and topological eccentricities must have a developmental role on who we are as people, at least in nuance.
That being said, a family member of mine visited Ireland some years ago and was plagued by militaristic and violent dreams.... at the time I wondered if this could be related to a hardcore unionist ancestor we have (about four generations back - a marcher and all that crap). So I don't rule out ancestral memory as a phenomena, but I also think it could be physiological in some way (genetic/epigenetic/who knows) and I'm not sure if it has any transmigrational dimension.
Anyway, immigration
IS a part of my ancestral experience.
As for tribal spirituality, I wouldn't denigrate it at all, there's true timeless wisdom and practice there.... but since the universe/life/sentience/society seems to have an evolutionary bent... I reckon contemporary spiritual perception should too (or at least adapt to its time). Hey, maybe even reincarnation as a phenomena is evolving in some way. At the moment I'm trying to building-block my way into a kind of 21st century animism.
The whole conversation brings to my mind James Baldwin, the American author. He travelled to Africa expecting the experience to be a home coming.... in reality, it made him realise that he's far more American than he is African.
As an aside, some Afrikaner cultural organisations have tried in the past to have themselves registered with the UN as an indigenous African tribe.
But, as you say, who knows?
All the best.
Edit: Just wondering.... is the cultural/environmental setting that lead to the 'pagan' way of relating to life even in existence anymore? I'm not well informed on the subject, so I ask this humbly: is ancient paganism still appropriate to 21st century Europe? Has it evolved over the last few thousand years (apart from Christianised Folk magic and Saint worship)?
Please understand, I'm genuinely curious..... not trying to jump on anyone's beliefs.