Media has been awash with stories of parents carrying out DNA tests to prove paternity of children. DNA tests have been carried out for long but the recent craze for these tests has sent shock waves across the country and one can’t help but wonder what the motive of these tests really is. The DNA test is not something typical of the African society.
In Africa, once a child is born during the marriage, he/she automatically becomes a child in the home. There were of course traditional methods that our grandfathers used to ascertain paternity. They would for example look at the size of the feet. The belief here is that the children’s feet had much to do with the paternal features. However, the hostility was very limited to children perceived not to belong to the father in the home. Such a child only missed out on certain privileges bestowed to biological children.
However, the current DNA tests are only serving to escalate violence in homes and break down families which is really uncalled for. There is actually no reason as to why children should be subjected to this kind of torture. In fact one school of thought is that the recent upsurge in men seeking DNA tests to prove paternity of children is being fueled by gay enthusiasts with a major aim of undermining the family institution.
These gay enthusiasts actually want men to lose trust in women. Believers in this school of thought claim that even the recent hashtag ‘Fear Women’ which has been trending on social media is being driven by trans-gender people with a major view of encouraging same sex marriage.
There is, therefore, need for caution when carrying out these DNA tests if they must be done anyway. There have been confessions of people in the media testifying how they carried out DNA tests and were given wrong results. Therefore, the laboratory where the DNA tests are carried out should be carefully thought after.
There are also women who claim that the crave by men to have a particular sex of children should be behind the un-matching DNA tests where women connive with medical personnel to exchange children to suit the preference of their husbands while there are also remote beliefs which are not researched that the recent Covid 19 vaccinations could have altered men’s DNA.
My view is that to avoid the stress that comes with finding out later in life that the child you have been calling your own is not actually yours, DNA tests, if they must be done, should be done when they child is still very young. Carrying out DNA at a later stage can only serve to accelerate stress and other ailments that can even ultimately lead to dire consequences.
