The government chemical laboratory says it has been receiving more visitors lately. Not the usual clients going to test the chemical properties of medicines, liquid consumables, and the like, but irate parents demanding to ascertain the paternity of new members in the family.
There are cases, particularly from fathers, suspecting that they have no resemblance whatsoever to the brat imported by the spouse or live-in partner. Of course, many of the cases hardly need the intervention of the government chemist because the newborns are virtually alien.
How about instances where black couples are blessed with coloured offspring, and biology is pleaded with to explain how this is scientifically possible? Less conspicuous results are explained away by comparisons to grandparents and distant cousins.
Some God-fearing men of means, and those who believe that every child comes with its fortunes, and observe the traditional bed doctrines to bear illegitimate children, accept the disputable offspring. It’s not the case with every man.
Which is why disputes over illegitimate offspring are many today, and, unfortunately, the government chemist has been ruling most of them products of foul play.
According to the government laboratory, 524 applications for ancestry tests, popularly known as DNA (Deoxyribonucleic acid), were received and processed in 2024. The agency believes there is higher public awareness for this and scientific investigation services generally, which grew by 21 percent between 2021 and 2024.
It should also be said that it is relatively easy to carry out a DNA test in Tanzania. All you need is to go through the Welfare Department, Notary Public, or Court to endorse your application to the government chemist. It costs 100,000/- per person and paternity tests would involve the father, mother, and offspring. You wait for your results for three to four weeks.
Countries like Israel and even neighbouring Uganda are reported to apply strict controls on DNA testing unless ordered for legal or medical purposes. The former is protective of privacy, including Jewish identity, it is rumoured, while Uganda wants to avoid the negative effect of the test results on families.
There is no doubt that negative ancestry tests are the cause of endless family feuds and have been used by fathers to reject disputed offspring, thereby increasing the number of street kids.
Yet men appear to be at the centre of this problem. While immorality can be said to drive unfaithfulness in many cases, there are perhaps as many instances where otherwise decent women have been forced to stray to make ends meet for the family or revenge for men’s infidelity and other inadequacies, if you see what I mean.
I will not endorse the tit-for-tat attitude, but we must face it: What is good for the goose is good for the gander! So let’s fix our economic and financial inequities as society, but we must also go back to our roots of faithful familyhood.
