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Pulse fact-checks a viral quote of Rihanna claiming to be Igbo.

Fact-Check: The widely circulated quote of Rihanna claiming to be Igbo is false | Pulse Nigeria

Steve Dede

A quote of music superstar Rihanna claiming to be Igbo has circulated widely on the Nigerian internet sphere.&nbsp;

According to web and social media searches, the quote started circulating online around Saturday, August 7, 2021.&nbsp;

However, Nigeria Daily Times Nigeria, through its verified Facebook page, brought the quote into the mainstream.&nbsp;

In the post, Daily Times Nigeria wrote, "Rihanna "My mum told me that I am originally an Igbo woman. Igbo is a tribe in Africa," with a photo of the singer.&nbsp;

Daily Times Nigeria's Facebook post made the quote go viral

Fact Check: The widely circulated quote of Rihanna claiming to be Igbo is false (Facebook/Daily Times Nigeria)

The post has been shared over two thousand times and has over six thousand comments.&nbsp;

Since then, the quote has been widely circulated on social media, with big pages on Twitter Nigeria also sharing it.&nbsp;

The handle Naija_PR with over 750000 followers shared the quote in a post with 634 responses and over three thousand Retweets.&nbsp;

The quote was also posted by big accounts on Twitter Nigeria (Twitter/Naija_PR)

Fact Check: The widely circulated quote of Rihanna claiming to be Igbo is false (Twitter/Naija_PR)

Nigeria NewsDesk, with one million followers, also shared the post.&nbsp;

The quote was also shared by Twitter accounts with huge followers (Twitter/Nigeria NewsDesk)

A simple search on Google also shows that a news platform like The Nation also published the post. Daily Post, another popular news website, published it and although they deleted it later, it shows up on Google searches.&nbsp;

A quick search on Google shows that some news platforms also published the quote (Google)

Fact Check: The widely circulated quote of Rihanna claiming to be Igbo is false (Google)

The Nation Newspapers, in their article, quoted Forbes' official Instagram page as the source of Rihanna's comment.&nbsp;

But a check on Forbes' <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/CSJro91MA5W/">Instagram page</a> shows that they made two posts about Rihanna, which had no such quote.&nbsp;

Pulse then did a thorough search of all Rihanna's most recent interviews and also found no such quote.&nbsp;

No report of this Rihanna's comment gave a credible source of the quote, which is a red flag.&nbsp;

After all checks, Pulse can confirm that this quote is fake.&nbsp;Rihanna has no known link to the Igbo tribe.&nbsp;

In a 2019 interview with The New York Times Style Magazine, <a href="https://www.pulse.ng/entertainment/celebrities/rihanna-is-officially-a-billionaire/mq78z8s">the billionaire singer</a> spoke of her ancestry.&nbsp;

"In my own household, my father is half black, half white. My mom is black from South America. I was seeing diversity. That's all I knew," she said.&nbsp;

Her mother, Monica Braithwaite, is Afro-Guyanese, while her father, Ronald Fenty, is of Afro-Barbadian and the British Isles ancestry.&nbsp;

Fact-Check: The widely circulated quote of Rihanna claiming to be Igbo is false

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