When a Nigerian black couple’s daughter was born in 2010, her looks were anything but what they expected.
The couple, who moved to South London from Nigeria in 2005 with their black daughter and son, had a baby girl born with white skin, curly blonde hair, and blue eyes.
According to Ben and Angela Ihegboro, they have no mixed-race ancestry as far as they know.
So, how did Ben and Angela Ihegboro, the Nigerian black couple, happen to welcome a white baby, Nmachi, in 2010 that even surprised doctors?
There are three possible explanations: dormant white genes, a spontaneous genetic mutation, or albinism.
Read more:
- Kaleb-Wolf De Melo Torres from Shriners Hospital – A Comprehensive Biography
- What Happened to Alec from Shriners Hospital?
- Alec Cabacungan’s Story: From Shriners Hospital Patient to Commercial Spokesperson
How Did Black Couple, Ben and Angela Ihegboro, Happen to Welcome a White Baby, Nmachi, in 2010?
Human traits are ruled by genetics. And in the case of a person’s skin, hair, and eye color, about twelve different genes are involved in controlling melanin expression.
If the Ihegboro’s say they have no mixed-race lineage that they know of and Ben, Nmachi’s father, says that infidelity is out of the question. Then how was their little girl born with such fair features?
Let’s take a look at the three possible explanations.
1. Dormant Genes
It is possible that at some point in the Ihegboro’s lineage, white genes entered both of their families.
The light skin gene variants could have remained dormant for a long time, masked by the dark skin genes.
So, when little Nmachi was conceived, she must have received light genes from both parents, which in turn gave her such a fair appearance.
According to Bryan Sykes, Professor of Human Genetics at the University of Oxford,
“We are all of us genetic mixtures to some extent and occasionally you’ll have a convergence of the pale versions of these genes in African Americans and African Caribbeans who have a mixed black and white ancestry. But that doesn’t seem to be the case here. The parents are Nigerians with little known white ancestry at all.”
2. Spontaneous Mutation
It is possible that the Ihegboro’s baby girl experienced a spontaneous genetic mutation.
According to Science Direct, “spontaneous mutations are genetic events that happen randomly by chance.”
Furthermore, they are “heritable changes in the sequence of the genetic material that occur in the absence of exogenous causes.”
This means that a spontaneous mutation that had no outside cause, could have led to baby Nmachi’s fair complexion and that she’ll likely pass it on to her children.
3. Albinism
Yet another theory is that the genetic disorder, albinism, could be the cause of the Ihegboro’s baby girl’s fair physical traits.
There are four different types of albinism, 1 to 4, categorized by severity. People with the most severe form show a complete lack of pigment in their skin, hair, and eyes.
Roughly, 1 in 20,000 people in the world are born with a type of this disorder.
In the case of baby Nmachi, both parents could be carriers for a copy of a mild form of the albino gene.
Sources
https://www.nbcnews.com/healthmain/white-baby-born-black-parents-1c6437718
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-10697682
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/spontaneous-mutation