This is the black couple
who have amazed medical experts after their baby daughter was born with white skin,
blue eyes and blonde hair. Benjamin and Angela Ihegboro's daughter, Nmachi, has
flummoxed genetic experts who are unable to explain why she looks they way she
does. Doctors say the white-skinned newborn is not an albino. The blonde,
blue-eyed girl's Nigerian parents say they don't know of any white ancestry in
either of their families.
The British couples are
both of Igbo Nigerian origin and have dark skin. Father Ben Ihegboro, 44, a
customer services adviser, admitted that when he saw the baby he exclaimed
'What the flip?' before joking: 'Is she mine?'
Doctors at Queen Mary
hospital in Sidcup insist that Nmachi - whose name means 'beauty of God' in the
couple's native Igbo language - is not an albino. Her stunned parents, who
already have two black children, just 'sat and stared' at their white baby when
she arrived, they told the Sun last night. 'We both just sat there after the
birth staring at her,' said Mr Ihegboro.
Mum Angela said: 'She is
beautiful, a miracle baby.' Despite jokingly asking whether he was the father,
Mr Igegboro said:
'Of course she is mine. 'My
wife is true to me. Even if she hadn't been, the baby wouldn't have looked like
that!'
Pale skin genes can skip
generations but neither Ben nor Angela Ihegboro - who only moved to Britain
five years ago - know of any white heritage in either of their families.
'She doesn't look like an
albino child anyway,' Mr Ihegboro said. 'Not like the ones I have seen back in
Nigeria or in books. She just looks like a healthy white baby. 'My mum is a
black Nigerian although she has a bit fairer skin than mine. But we don't know
of any white ancestry.
'We wondered if it was a
genetic twist. But even then, what is with the long curly blonde hair.' The
couple also have an older daughter, Dumebi, two, and a son, Chisom, four. Mr
Ihegboro said the couple's son was even more confused than them.
He added: 'Our boy keeps
coming to look at his sister and sits down looking puzzled. ‘We are a black
family. Suddenly he has a white sister. ‘But all that matters is that she is
healthy and that we love her.' Skin colour is believed to be determined by up
to seven different genes working together.
If a woman is of mixed
race, her eggs will usually contain a mixture of genes coding for both black
and white skin. Similarly, a man of mixed race will have a variety of different
genes in his sperm.
When these eggs and sperm
come together, they will create a baby of mixed race.
But, very occasionally, the
egg or sperm might contain genes coding for one skin colour. If both the egg
and sperm contain all white genes, the baby will be white. And if both contain
just the versions necessary for black skin, the baby will be black.
In 2006 a British mixed
race couple gave birth to twin girls, one of whom was white and the other
black.
Both Kylie and her partner
Remi Horder, 17, are of mixed race. Their mothers are both white and their
fathers are black.
But the chances of the twin
girls having completely different skin colours was one in a million.
According to the Multiple
Births Foundation, baby Kian must have inherited the black genes from both
sides of the family, whilst Remee inherited the white ones.
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