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White baby born to black couple to be tested
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MILLION TO ONE: Baby Nmachi
THE WHITE baby born to a black Nigerian couple from south London will undergo full genetic tests in the coming weeks it has been revealed.
Four-day old Nmachi Ihegboro, who was born with blond hair and blue eyes, has baffled genetic experts because both her parents are black and have no known white family history. Both Ben and Angela Ihegboro are now desperately trying to discover whether they have any white ancestry to make sense of their baby daughter's appearance.
Mr Ihegboro, a devout Christian, said he had no reason to doubt little Namchi’s paternity. He said: “My wife is true to me. Even if she hadn’t been, the baby still wouldn’t look like that. “We both just sat there after the birth staring at her for ages – not saying anything.”
The 44-year-old customer services adviser did reveal that although he and his wife believe there are no whites on either side of their Nigerian family, his 70-year-old mother, Amebo has blue eyes.
The couple have agreed to let experts study Nmachi. Geneticist Dr Mark Thomas, of University College London said that 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.”
Mr Ihegboro said they “would do what we can to find answers”
“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.”
Published: 21 July 2010
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