Nigerian couple’s white baby ’ll face social problems — Experts

Written by The Punch Friday, 23 July 2010

Nigerians have continued to react to the news of a white baby girl born to a Nigerian couple resident in the United Kingdom.

A child psychologist at the University College Hospital, Ibadan, told our correspondent on Thursday that the baby would face social problems in future.

Mr. Ben Ihegboro and his wife, Angela, made the headlines earlier in the week, when they were handed a white baby girl as the new addition to their family. The couple, of Woolwich, South London, has two other children: a boy, Chisom, 4, and his sister, Dumebi, 2. The new baby has been christened Nmachi, meaning ‘Beauty of God’

In a chat with our correspondent, the child psychologist who requested anonymity on the account of his employment terms, explained that, “In the academic and popular discourse, there is now a concern that ‘mixed families’ have become problematical.”

“Persons of colour in the settings such as the one Ihegboros live are often subjected to racialised critical social gaze in a way that makes social interaction near impossible,” he said.

He explained that social significance is usually attached to relationships involving people from different racial backgrounds.

“In this case, black parents of a white child can find themselves dealing with racism directed at their child, while also facing social disapproval themselves,” he explained.

As for the child, the psychologist said, one thing the parents must realise is that they need to understand the insidious effects of racism when parenting multi-racial children as they now seem to have; because, he said, ”racism leaves marks that last a lifetime, and this can impact negatively on the child’s psychology.”

“Worse still,” the psychologist said, ”when the child wants to register in school, what race is she going to fill in the form: black or white?”

In his reaction to the issue, Adjunct Professor, University of Illinois at Chicago & CMD Medical ART Center, Prof. Oladapo Ashiru, said a white baby being delivered by a black couple is a very rare event. According to him, the explanation can be made if one knows the medical history of the couple.

Recalling what happened in California in 1992, Ashiru explained that two couples –– one black and the other white –– went through In Vitro Fertilisation in the laboratory of one Dr. Ricardo Asch, an IVF practitioner.

“They both got pregnant and at delivery, the white couple gave birth to a black baby, while the black couple gave birth to a white baby. That created a lot of uproar, which led to the regulation of IVF in the United States of America,” he said.

He explained that, “In the California case, what happened was that the embryos got mixed up in such a way that the white embryo was given to the black lady, while the black embryo was given to the white lady. The America Board of Bioanalysis was then mandated to issue several laboratory procedures for IVF and all IVF practitioners. Those who head the laboratory had to be certified through examination as High Complexity Clinical Laboratory Director (HCLD). Since then, the practice of IVF in USA has been trouble free.”

Countering some scientists‘ explanation of possible genetic mutations as being responsible for Nmachi‘s white skin, Ashiru said, “It is very rare that this can be caused by mutation, as neither the wife nor the husband, from what we have read, is working in a place that have high exposure to mutageneic substances like a nuclear reactor powerplant or a radiation center.”