The ancestors of British African Caribbeans were deprived of their history as well as their freedom when they were packed into slave ships and transported over the Atlantic to the plantations of the Caribbean. Now a groundbreaking genetic investigation by scientists at Cambridge, Leicester and Penn State University, has enabled 229 British African Caribbeans to learn more about their ancestral heritage.

The work was commissioned for a documentary, Motherland: A Genetic Journey, which will be broadcast tonight (Friday 14 February 2003) at 9pm on BBC2. The film follows the emotional journeys of three members of the group as they investigate their ancestry. The programme-makers also commissioned an ancestral genetic analysis on hundreds of volunteers which will reveal, for the first time, the genetic impact of the Transatlantic slave trade on British African Caribbeans.

The work at Cambridge was done by husband and wife research team Drs Lucy and Peter Forster of the MacDonald Institute of Archaeological Research. The Forsters have a database of mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) samples from 20,000 individuals, 2,000 of whom are African. We only inherit mtDNA from our mothers, so it can be used to trace our maternal heritage. Dr Mark Jobling at Leicester University looked at Y chromosome samples, inherited by men from their fathers.

Comparative analysis of the two genetic markers revealed that whilst 97 per cent of the mtDNA samples revealed an African origin, only 75 per cent of the Y chromosome samples were African - 25 per cent were European in origin. The genetic evidence confirms what historians have long understood - the slave trade enabled white men to exploit their power over African women to have sex with them.

Although it was a surprise to many of the study's subjects to discover their European ancestry, the finding only confirmed existing scientific data. Of more interest to Peter Forster was the revelation that there was almost no native American DNA in the samples.

"The genetic evidence would suggest that the colonisation of the Caribbean islands involved a drastic population replacement," he said.

The emotional power of the knowledge that the Forsters passed on to the programme participants is exemplified by the story of Beaula McCalla, whose mtDNA matched that of the Bubi tribe, the native people of Bioko, a tiny island off the West coast of Africa. The documentary shows Beaula travelling to Bioko to meet her ancestral family.

"I felt like a daughter returning home. I felt joy, sadness, pride and sorrow all at the same time. In her face I saw some resemblance to my Aunt in Jamaica and that also confirmed for me that this was for real. We had shared the same grandmother some time in our history. Slavery had put several hundred years between us and I was eager from that moment on to close the gap," said Beaula.

At a screening and discussion of the programme held at the Science Museum in London, many members of the public expressed an interest in tracing their genetic heritage. Although Dr Forster cautions that the science of population genetics can only describe one aspect of individuality, the reaction to this programme has been dramatic.

"Until now population genetics has been a fairly esoteric science, but programmes like Motherland are generating enormous public interest. It looks like we have let the genetic genie out of the bottle."

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