Beaula McCalla, a youth worker from the UK town of Bristol, never imagined that she would one day meet her relatives in Equatorial Guinea, 6,500 km away. “It was like blood touching blood… It was like family,” she said.

Beaula, an African-Caribbean descendent of slaves, was reunited with her long-lost family thanks to a unique genetic study undertaken for a BBC programme, Motherland: A Genetic Journey.

She says that she always thought of herself as an African but now she has the genetic proof, some 200 years, or 11 generations, after her ancestors were captured, taken across the Atlantic Ocean and made to work as slaves. Read More