Have you ever wondered why our Igbo brothers are more light-skinned than any other tribe in West Africa? People from the Yoruba tribe are black. The Hausa’s are black. Those from Cameroon are even darker. So, the tribe from South-East Nigeria is surrounded by black people. However, a larger percentage of them are light-skinned.
While no research has proven this to be a fact, the skin tone of the Igbo tribe is most likely due to a gene they have carried down from centuries in the past. This gene is assumed to be the Portuguese gene.
Foreigners from Portugal were the first to enter the area we now call Nigeria in the 17th and 18th century. Many decades before the British men came to Nigeria, the Portuguese had already been here to trade. They were not hostile or self-imposed on the natives but instead related to them like equals.
The Portuguese learnt the African culture from the Bini and Igbo tribes while teaching them some of their own crafts. Bronze sculpture making, which is one of the major heritages of Bini, was originally learnt from the Portuguese. The also learnt cloth weaving and colouring/dye and tie.
While this was going on, the tribes in Nigeria were still at an era where women were seen as properties and could be given to visitors in hospitality or as a show of acceptance. Many Igbo and Bini fathers gave their daughters and maids to the white men for s*xual pleasures. This was when many ladies got pregnant with half Portuguese children and had children who have a light skin tone.
To Benin men and Igbo men, they were only entertaining their foreign visitors. They had no idea that they were altering the course of history forever. The Portuguese enjoyed free s*x with almost any woman they wanted and impregnated as many Nigerian ladies as possible.
When the children were born, they came out light-skinned, and that marked the start of the lighter Igbo men and women. The light skin gene has been passed from generation to generation and most Igbos have forgotten any of these stories. Many Igbo men and women have coloured hair, coloured eyes, light skin, and look more foreign than African. However, they do not know that they are partially Portuguese.
This logic can be accepted as true because mixed babies were also made in some Nigerian states when the British came to colonise the country. It is therefore believed that most Igbos have Portuguese genes in their body, and do not even know it.
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