Meghan

In her latest episode of Archetypes, Meghan Markle revealed that a genealogy test had revealed that she was 4% Nigerian.
Image via Spotify

Meghan claims she 43% Nigerian – tweeps say she’s ‘clout chasing’

‘Stop using culture for clout’: African tweeps have laughed off claims made by Meghan Markle, who admitted to being 43% Nigerian.

Meghan

In her latest episode of Archetypes, Meghan Markle revealed that a genealogy test had revealed that she was 4% Nigerian.
Image via Spotify

Meghan Markle has revealed interesting details about her ancestry – but it seems many are taking it with a pinch of salt.

In her latest Spotify podcast called Archetypes, the wife of Prince Harry claimed that she had strong Nigerian bloodlines – 43% to be exact.

ALSO READ: ‘Archetypes’: Meghan Markle on ‘angry black woman’ stereotype

MEGHAN REVEALS NIGERIAN HERITAGE

Chatting to guests actress Issa Rae and author and author Ziwe Fumudoh, Meghan Markle claimed that she had a genealogy test a few years back.

The results? “I’m 43% Nigerian,” Meghan quipped to her surprised guests.

Ziwe, who is also Nigerian, responded: “Are you serious? This is huge. Igbo, Yoruba, do we know?”

The mom of two then claimed that Nigerian women were usually in disbelief when she shared the information. Meghan added: “I’m going to start to dig deeper into all of this because anyone that I’ve told, especially Nigerian women, are just like, what?”

Whilst it’s a widely known fact that Meghan is biracial – her mother black and her father white – the podcast marked her first time discussing her ancestry.

In August, the Duchess of Sussex chatted with Mariah Carey, who is also biracial. In it, the royal revealed that she had never been classified as “black”, until she started dating Prince Harry in 2018.

She said: “I mean, if there’s any time in my life that it’s been more focused on my race, it’s only once I started dating my husband. Then I started to understand what it was like to be treated like a black woman”.

ALSO READ: ‘Crying on cue’: Meghan brags about acting ability in old clip [watch]

IS SHE MALTESE TOO?

Whilst Meghan admitted to having Nigerian ancestry, the former actress claimed in 2015 that her paternal great-great-grandmother Mary Bird was of Maltese descent.

Meghan also revealed in a post on her now-defunct blog The Tig, that her experience of visiting Malta was like “fitting in a piece of the puzzle.”

According to The Sun, Mary was born in 1862, and spent 20 years in Malta, before moving to Canada. Mary is a direct descendant of Thomas Markle, Meghan’s dad.

TWEEPS ARE UNCONVINCED

With Meghan’s admission that Nigerian women are finding her revelation hard to believe, social media users echoed the same sentiments.

And Twitter users – mainly from Nigeria – went as far as to call Meghan out for “claiming” their culture.

Here’s what tweeps had to say

@iam_ayesha1: “In 2015 she claimed she was Maltese .. now she’s claiming to be 43% Nigerian. Stop using cultures and race for clout”

@TheAngelDami: “They always wanna be Nigerians so bad”

@DanielRegha: “Literally all foreigners claim there are from Nigeria after taking a genealogy test, it’s becoming questionable”

@amgrichlucchi: “Dear fellow Africans, please let’s stop claiming people that don’t claim us back”

Twitter