We all carry hundreds of such inherited mistakes-mutations. It can only happen when each parent carries a copy of a defective gene for melanin production.
This is an inherited condition in which the production of melanin (the brown-black pigment, responsible for ‘suntan’) is impaired.Īll groups of humans naturally have melanin in their skin, eyes and hair.
#Skin deep org skin
But then, they have always been puzzled about why anyone would reject or look down upon another human being on the basis of skin colour. The Unoarumhis obviously love their children no less than any parent would, despite the children’s skin colour looking different from their own. A lot of the locals were now “at least trying to believe they really are our own children.” She said, “It got so I didn’t even want to go out anymore, but I’m more used to it all now.”Īsked about the worldwide media attention, Cynthia said she believed it was having a good effect. She often had to deal with hostility from strangers who assumed that it could not be her own child, and resented it. Even when she had only her first white child, people would frequently hassle her. She confirmed that they had experienced racism, especially with the children. Dickson, a computer engineer, handed us over to his wife as he left for work.Ĭynthia, a financial administrator, had just been told their ‘world first’ situation would feature in the Guinness Book of Records. When we spoke to Cynthia and Dickson by phone at their home, we found them to be a delightful Christian couple.
As well as making it into the Guinness Book of Records, this family is a living pointer to the fallacies of racist, evolutionary ways of thinking about mankind and our origins. Medical experts have reckoned the odds against three children being born with this genetic combination at around five million to one. Even then, only one in four of their offspring on average should have albinism. The chance of marrying someone carrying the same gene is even more remote. The chances of one parent carrying such a gene are small. Melanin is found in the skin, eyes and hair of all ‘races’ in various amounts, leading to different expressions of the same basic colour. When two such genes pair in the offspring, the result is a very low production of the brown-black pigment, melanin. Meet London’s remarkable Unoarumhi family-both parents are of typical African appearance with dark skin, eyes, and hair, while all three of their children have white skin, blond hair and hazel-green eyes!Įach of the children happens to have inherited a gene for a form of albinism (see What is albinism?) from each parent. All three children are fully their own biological offspring. Both parents were born in Nigeria, and have a long African ancestry. Love is more than skin deep A chat with Dickson and Cynthia Unoarumhi Dickson and Cynthia Unoarumhi, with their daughter, Atinuke, and sons Osimo and Ayonote. Sharing purposes, readers are advised to supplement these historic articles with more up-to-date ones suggested in the Related Articles and Further Reading below. Editor’s note: As Creation magazine has been continuously published since 1978, weĪre publishing some of the articles from the archives for historical interest, such as this.