White child puzzles black family
Parents Ben and Angela Ihegboro show newborn Nmachi to her sister Dumebi and brother Chisom.
Sat, July 24, 2010 - 1:56 AM
LONDON, England – The white baby girl born to black Nigerian parents seven days ago in London, is to undergo full genetic tests.
And Ben and Angela Ihegboro are also trying to discover whether they have any white ancestry.
The devout Christian couple believe there are no Whites on either side of their families that could have led to Nmachi’s skin colour. But Ben’s mother Amebo, 70, is unusual in having blue eyes.
Ben and Angela agreed to let experts study Nmachi as geneticist Dr Mark Thomas of University College, London, said the odds of the baby’s white colouring were “between many millions to one and a million to one”.
He said: “I suspect there’s been a mixture of a mutation, like albinism, combined with a dormant white gene.”
Doesn’t matter
Ben, 44, a customer services adviser, said: “It doesn’t matter to us quite how she came about but we will do what we can to find answers. She’s a beautiful, miracle baby and we love her. She could be green and yellow – we would love her the same.”
Ben and Angela, of Woolwich, South London, were amazed by their blonde daughter’s birth at Queen Mary’s Hospital, Sidcup.
The reasons why this phenomenon could have occurred was looked at by experts quizzed by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).
According to the radio and television network, there are three potential reasons for baby Nmachi’s unexpected appearance: “dormant white genes which entered both of her parents’ families long ago, a genetic mutation unique to her, or albinism”.
The first reports on the family’s strange case had ruled out albinism, but the BBC says Nmachi’s doctors have not ruled it out.
Albinism, a condition whereby a person has little or no colour in their skin, hair and eyes, can remain dormant in genes for many generations.
Just because the couple’s living relatives aren’t afflicted by the disease, that doesn’t mean they aren’t carriers. It is not an uncommon condition in Nigeria.
Another possible explanation is that Nmachi’s parents may harbour long dormant Caucasian DNA from a long forgotten interracial coupling.
A third possibility is perhaps the most tantalising but also the scariest. Nmachi may have a unique genetic mutation that doctors have not seen before.
(The SUN/BBC)
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i had the same thing year ago and when we trace back some of my father family had the colour i have a greatgrand daughter she is fair skin but both side have that colour and most likely it is one of their genes.
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Comment LinkMAN THIS BROTHER GOT A READDY MEK WHITE CHILD/ LOL.
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Comment LinkLove and treasure God’s little angel anyway! Some people would be glad to have a child like this to fill the void in their lives.
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Comment LinkME TOO
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Comment LinkThis beautiful baby looks like my two children 2 and 3 born of my 4children my mom had blue eyes with dark skin like my other two children husband and my self we had not family history or gene it turn out my two kids are albinos and the 4th dark skin like the first they are all beautiful and i am happy to be their mom.
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Comment LinkAnd the opposite could easily happen in Barbados, or to those who ran off to Canada and Australia. When we as Barbadians begin to trace our ancestry, we invariably find two branches, one leading to Europe,and the other to Africa.
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Comment LinkI am no medic but I think that this child is albino. The child look like two (a sister and a brother, not twins) that were born to the same parents in my district when I was a little lad, and they turned out to be albinos with blond hair and blue eyes. Both are now deceased.
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Comment LinkHere is another reason why racism is such a foolish thing…..we are all one under the sun…..
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Comment LinkWhy is this story important? Why are black people gleefully passing this around the internet as if it’s truly impactfull and important news? People of African descent across the globe are being decimated financially by this global recession. We should be discussing creative ways to combat this reality not celebrating an albino child be calling it “white.” Have we gone insane?
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Comment LinkWith racism rearing its ugly head in the political scenery in the USA, this may be God’s way in showing how white people originated.
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Comment LinkThis proof that GOD gave birth to the WHITE race through the AFRICAN race. That is the reason racism should be abolished around the world! There is but one race, and that is the human race!!!
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Comment LinkOut of One comes Many, out of the Afrikan man & woman came all other Nations,it is from the Afrikan Man & Woman that we have the Brown, Yellow & White nations but none of these Nations can bring an Afrikan child, we as Afrikan people we have the original genes all other are Carbon copies, this is just a sign for us to open our eyes & acknowledge who we are, Afrikan man and woman are the Father and Mother of Creation.
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Comment LinkOR….maybe the child isnt his…..hmmmmm, what a novel idea
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Comment LinkEmancipate yourselves from mental slavery. None but ourselves can free our minds.
While geneticists are demonstrating that there is but one race - the human race - that all human genes appear in Africans, and that mankind can trace their roots back to Africa, we are demonstrating our mental enslavement by marvelling at a “white” child born to “black” parents.
Wake up!
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Comment LinkRACISM IS A FOOLISH THING!
I totally agree with
Rastafire…. ‘we are all one under the sun’.
Well said!
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Comment LinkThis is for all the white supremicist .Two black people could produce a child with Caucasian skin ad blue eyes .This shows that all man came from one .This shows that God is telling us stop the foolishness.
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Comment LinkI’m with Ben all all the way on this matter as his comment speaks volumes….“She could be green and yellow – we would love her the same.” Amen to that!!!!
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Comment LinkIs their plumber white?
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Comment LinkThose of you who are implying that the lady is some kind of tramp need to keep your tiny minds to yourself.
Fact: ALL races trace their origin to Africa
Fact: the little girls grandmother is black with BLUE eyes
Fact: the mother of the child AGREED to genetic testing.
God is telling us RACE DOES NOT MATTER the white supremacists are wrong!!!
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Comment Linkall i see is a jacket!
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