Like any expected mom, Angela Hegborough spent many hours wondering what her new baby would look like. She made no secret of the fact that she hoped the little girl would turn out to be, quote, just a mini version of me. We used to joke about it, she says, rolling her eyes as she she looks at her husband, Benjamin. We have two children already, and they are both the spitting image of their father. We found out at a scan that this baby was a girl, and all through the pregnancy, I’d say it’s my turn now. This one is going to look exactly like me.
To say that didn’t quite happen is an understatement. In fact, the tiny little scrap lying in her arms today could hardly look less like her mother or her father, for that matter. Both Angela and Ben are black, of Nigerian stock, with dark Brown eyes and dark hair.
Little Monchi, who is just two weeks old, is about as wide as you can get and with piercing blue eyes and a shock of the blondest hair to boot. And no, she isn’t albino. Those friends and relatives popping in to welcome the new arrival can be forgiven for hesitating over that traditional conversation. Who does she look like? Many babies are hailed as miracles.
It seems that Machi might be one of the few who truly deserves the title. In genetic terms, she is indeed most unusual, if not unheard of. For the past week, since news of her arrival broke, the scientific community has been scratching its head. As he gazes on his baby daughter. Ben sums up the dilemma the family finds itself in.
Everyone wants to know how a couple as black as is can produce a baby as white as this. I’ve never heard of it before. Outside the delivery room, when the reality was just settling in. I remember thinking, someone will be able to explain this to us, but it hasn’t happened yet. I don’t know if we’ll ever know why.
Doctors at the Queen Mary Hospital in Sidcup in Kent, where In Machu was born, immediately ruled out albinism, which would have been the most likely explanation. Albinos generally have a complete absence of pigment with pink eyes. Now there is some debate, however, with at least one leading scientist arguing that there are four different types of albinism, all of which allow different levels of coloring to develop. Professor Ian Jackson, an expert in melanocytes cells that produce pigment at the British Medical Research Council’s Human Genetics Unit, points out that in type two cases, creamy skin and yellow hair are possible. The blue eyes, however, would be highly unusual.
Frankly, the family is baffled. Man admits himself that he’s no expert in genetics. I knew that it wasn’t as simple as putting A with B and making C. But beyond that, not really. But he may be about to become one.
His own family history may be about to come under scrutiny too. No one in the family is aware of any white blood at all, and I don’t really know how you go about looking any further. Part of me wants to know what’s happened here, to have an answer, to tellan Machu when she gets older. But another part of me thinks that it doesn’t matter. Perhaps God made her like this for a reason.
And quite honestly, at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter whether she is white or black or red or green. She’s beautiful and healthy and that’s what’s important. It has long been recognized that the laws of genetics dictate that every so often a genetic core can result in a child’s skin tone being different to his or her parents. It is not unheard of for a wider black couple to produce a child of a seemingly different race with a rogue lightskinned gene, perhaps generations back. Being responsible.
Experts say that in this extreme case there would have to be history of white ancestry on both sides. And it seems that it is immachi’s most Scandinavian coloring that is baffling them. As Professor Bryan Sykes, head of human genetics at Oxford University and Britain’s leading expert, puts it, the hair is extremely unusual. Even many blonde children don’t have blonde hair like this at birth. This might be a case where there is a lot of genetic mixing, as in Afrocaribbean populations, but in Nigeria there is a little mixing.
As far as Ben and Angela are concerned, there is no white blood in their family history. Ben’s mother was a lighter skin and eyes than him, but she is still unmistakably black. The mystery of inmatchi’s coloring may 1 day be known, but until then, her proud parents are taking her arrival very much in their stride. At their flat in Woolwich, Southeast London, friends and relatives have been pitching in to lend a hand since she got home from hospital. Ben’s best friend, Kazibonic Wonu, who traveled to the UK to see her, says, he got the shock of my life.
When he first saw the baby. Ben didn’t tell me that she was white on the phone. We already knew it was going to be a girl and he called me to say she had arrived and that everyone was overjoyed. It was a few days later when I actually got here and he took me in to see her. Angela was in the room and there was a midwife, a white woman carrying this white baby.
I obviously thought it was another couple’s baby. Nanbed said, this is her and it was such a shock. He hadn’t wanted to tell me on the phone and I can understand that. I wouldn’t have believed it anyway. How can a black couple have a white child?
The couple themselves were as shocked as anyone when Machi emerged. Ben was in the delivery room at the birth a good thing, he says. It was a cesarean and I was there, so I saw her being lifted out. I’m very glad I was otherwise. I’d have been saying, what mistake has been made here?
It was the hair that initially confused him. Obviously she looked very light, but black babies are often much lighter skinned at birth. It’s only over weeks and months that they get darker. But the hair was a shot from the off then the highs. I have never seen such blue, although Angela was equally taken aback.
The most shocking aspect for her has not been the color of her daughter’s skin, but other people’s reaction to it. Yes, her coloring was a surprise. When they placed her in my arms, I looked at her and thought, My goodness, I’ve never seen a baby of our race at this fair. And her hair, she looked like a doll. But the minute I held her, none of that mattered.
What has surprised me, though, is what other people have been asked. I’ve been asked, are you going to treat her any differently because she is lighterskinned? Of course I am not. Am I going to love her any less? Absolutely not.
When she gets older and asks me why she is different, I will just say it was God’s will and what Domachi’s older brother and sister think of her. They adore her. They come up and touch her and say, My sister. And they really don’t comment on her color. The good thing is that children don’t notice how straightforward life would be if that was the case with adults.
Even at this early stage, as the welcome baby presents are still arriving, difficult questions are emerging in this household. Although Bennett says he is 100% sure the child is his, he says he is still considering a DNA test. I do think I will probably have a DNA test. Not to prove anything to me. I know my wife and I trust her 100%.
But to make a point to other people, is Angela hurt at the accusations being hurled in her direction? Of course it’s confusing because I know the truth. I am loyal to my husband. I would never be with another man. But the thing is that people even doubt that she came out of me.
But of course she did has been angered by the public reaction to Maggie’s birth. Internet forums are full of baffled and often blinkered debate about how this baby has come to be. Well, yes, I am a little. But at the same time, I can understand it. I would probably be saying exactly the same thing.
If I saw this happening to someone else, I would say, no way. You’re kidding me. There must be something funny going on here. The wife must have been with another man. But even if Angela had been and I know she hasn’t.
It wouldn’t explain the baby’s coloring. There would be some black in there, wouldn’t there? Even from her genetic explanations aside, there will be other issues to confront. In many ways in Machi couldn’t have been born into a family more capable of handling the difficulties to come. Both Ben and Angela are obviously proud of their background and emphasize that it is their culture rather than color that matters.
They moved to the UK five years ago Because they felt there were more opportunities here for them. Ben’s first marriage had been to a Swiss woman and he is a Swiss National. When his marriage failed, she did not want children. I did simple as that, he explained. He returned to his native Nigeria on holiday Where he met and married Angela.
It was pure economics that brought them to Britain. They came over so that Ben could get a better paid job. I came first and got a job with a security company. I worked hard to be able to afford to bring my wife here. Eventually she came and found work too.
I think this country has many opportunities if you are prepared to work hard for them. While Angela was working as a care assistant, they had two children, Chisholm four and maybe two. Now they are endeavoring to raise their family with an awareness of their British and Nigerian roots. We think of them as British Nigerian but I do want them to be aware of where they are from. They haven’t been back to my village yet Because it is too expensive but they will at home we speak our language.
Igbo but they will hopefully grow up feeling that they belong to both communities. Obviously with immachi it’s going to be even more important to make sure she feels a part of her Nigerian culture but that is up to us as parents. So Angela did not get the baby daughter who looks just like her but it seems she no longer minds. In our culture, a baby is a blessing. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a boy or a girl or whatever color her skin is.
She points out. Her name means beauty of God in our language and we think it suits her so well.