In an interesting display of genetics at work, a black couple in South London have given birth to a baby girl who looks almost nothing like them.
The blonde-haired, blue-eyed, fair-skinned baby is an anomaly that baffles genetic experts.
Parents Ben and Angela Ihegboro were shocked to see their new baby so different from them and their previous children. The couple have no mixed-race family or pale-skinned family that could account for the baby.
Although the couple know the baby is theirs, they are still confused by the event.
«In fact, the first thing I did was look at it and say, ‘What is this?
The couple named the baby girl Nmachi, whose name means ‘Beauty of God’ in the couple’s Nigerian homeland.
Doctors are certain that the little girl is not albino. Professor Bryan Sykes, head of human genetics at the University of Oxford, says his birth is genetically extraordinary.
With no white ancestry to cause the event, chances are an unknown genetic mutation has taken place.
“In mixed-race humans, the lighter variant of skin tone can show up in a child – and it can sometimes be surprisingly different from the skin of the parents.
This could be the case where there is a lot of genetic mixing, such as in Afro-Caribbean populations. But in Nigeria, there is little mixing.
Of course, we are also confused and want to know what happened. But we understand that life is very strange.
“All that matters is that she is healthy and that we love her. She is a proud British Nigerian.
