DNA tests are a big deal in Ghana these days. It seems a lot of men are raising children that don’t belong to them. With all the recent stories in the news about men finding out that their kids are not theirs, I got curious and decided to do some few DNA tests. I am 34 years old and don’t have any children of my own (I’m married and we are still waiting on God) but I decided to do DNA test for myself and my siblings.I went online and found a DNA testing firm. I asked lots of questions and did plenty of research. Mainly, I wanted to find ways of doing the test without my siblings knowing what I was doing, in case the results were not what I was expecting.
I got to know that apart from the regular blood test and cheek swabs, you could also use hair, toothbrushes, fingernail clippings and chewing gum for DNA tests. I found ways of getting these from my siblings (There are 6 of us) and my Dad. Our Mum is deceased. Results came in that same week. Myself and 3 other siblings are not my father’s children…only 2 of us are. The results shocked me and I was in disbelief. This was about 2 years ago. I couldn’t tell anyone about it and I was a little worried that there could have been issues with the test. After all, these tests are not always 100% accurate. I needed to do more tests.
I don’t know if it was boredom or just general curiosity, but the whole thing got me all messed up and I decided to do more tests with the rest of the extended family. We are actually a very close kind of family, where nephews and cousins frequently visited us and stayed for vacations. So that is what I have been up to for the past 2 years. I would take my uncle’s children, my nephews, and anyone else I could get my hands on to barber shops and then try to get samples of their hair or get access to their tooth brushes for the tests.
Last year during the covid 19 pandemic, I organized Covid tests for the whole family and also had the DNA firm take their swabs and samples. They never suspected a thing. The DNA company was actually very cooperative and forthcoming. Trust me, its not small money they have made from me alone. Go online and search the cost of a single DNA test and you’ll know what I’m talking about.
At this point, I think I am going insane. The amount of information I have about who is whose child and who isn’t, is too much to handle. I have only discussed this with my wife and my spiritual father. My wife thinks I should call a general family meeting and just lay everything bare – The truth will set you free. My pastor thinks I should let sleeping dogs lie and just move on. I have absolutely no idea what to do. If it was just one illegitimate child, I could just call the parties involved and discuss it with them. But at this point, its as if our family isn’t really a family at all and people are just raising other people’s children. Nearly half of the tests I have done show that the “father” is not really the father.
I also understand that there could be other factors involved, like children being swapped at the hospital and stuff like that, so its likely that its not cheating that necessarily led to this. And by discussing this with them, I would also be admitting to invading their privacy and checking their paternity without their consent…which would be a weird conversation to have.
I would like to hear opinions and ideas on how I should handle this. I will be reading the comments.