Woman meets her uncle for the first time on trip to Ghana

When taking a trip, it is always fun to meet new people and probably bring home a souvenir for those left at home. What is unexpected is going back with a new relative – not a distant relative, but an uncle. This is what happened to Brixton, London, native Sharon Scott, who met her Jamaican uncle for the first time on her trip to Cape Coast in Ghana for Panafest 2019.

“The day before meeting her uncle, the group went to the craft market, and there was this huge quango tree, and he was standing in it, and I took a picture of him,” Scott said. “So, basically, we were all talking, and everything, and I had no clue that me and this person could be related.”

It was the following day that Scott would meet the stranger and confirm that they belonged to the same family.

“The next day, we were travelling to Cape Coast, I think, and I was sitting with the organiser of the trip,” Scott shared. “She called out to him and said, ‘Jah B’, but he obviously didn’t hear her so she turned around and said ‘Baugh’, and that’s what caught my attention.”

Scott proceeded to question the organiser of the trip and revealed that her mother’s surname is also Baugh. The organiser then encouraged her to ask him the next time the bus made a rest stop.

“I was sitting at the front of the bus, so when it stopped, I ran out straight away, and as soon as he got out, I grabbed him and I asked, ‘Are you a Baugh?’ and he said yes, and I said, ‘oh well, my mom is a Baugh’,” shared Scott.

She followed up this statement with telling the stranger her mother’s name and names of other family members, but when she mentioned her grandfather’s name, that was when he reacted and said, ‘That is my father’.

“His face changed and he said, ‘That’s my dad’. I was so shocked I started crying. I couldn’t believe it!” Scott exclaimed.

SHOCKING REVEAL

Scott noted that the organiser of the trip came out at that point along with other members, querying what was going. She then said: “He’s my uncle! He’s my uncle”. The organiser asked “Really?” in shock before encouraging them to hug.

“We went back on the bus after that, and everybody was talking about the incredulity of the situation, asking if it was true, and then they started pointing out the resemblance with our noses and our colouring,” she told The Gleaner.

Scott remembered that she had pictures of her mother on her phone, so she showed them to her uncle – Norman Baugh.” He was just floored,” she said. “He was, like, ‘Oh my God, she looks just like my dad!’ and then we just started talking about other family members.”

She told The Gleaner that it was an amazing feeling to have met her uncle for the first time and in such a remarkable fashion.

“When my mother took her first trip back to Jamaica in 1974 or 1975, I remember her talking about relatives, and she mentioned her youngest sibling,” Scott stated, “I knew about him, but I never met him.”

Scott said she did not believe in coincidences, and taking the trip was a long time coming as she had wanted to go to Panafest before but never did. Added to that, she would usually take trips with her family, but this time, she embarked on a trip of self-discovery.

“At some point, I felt that my mom was watching over us and she was integral to all of this,” she said.

Trips to Jamaica will not be the same for Scott. She said that when she would visit her mother’s grave in Portland, she usually droves through Highgate to get there. Now, she has a reason to stop.

“I can’t wait to introduce him to my family and for me to meet his,” Scott said.

The only British on a trip of Jamaicans, Scott feels blessed to have met a new family member.

vanessa.james@gleanerjm.com