A number of websites have also reported that Rihanna “says she is originally an Igbo woman”.
But has the musician really claimed Igbo heritage?
Mother from South America
Rihanna was born in the Caribbean island of Barbados in 1988. Her mother, Monica Braithwaite, is from the small South American country of Guyana. Her father, Ronald Fenty, is Barbadian. The musician’s philanthropic initiative, the Clara Lionel Foundation, is named after her mother’s parents: Clara and Lionel Braithwaite.
Africa Check looked through the musician’s verified social media accounts – on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram – and found no evidence that she said she, her mother and grandmother were “from Igbo”.
A Google search returned no credible confirmation of the claim. But it did return several fact-checks by Nigerian news outlets concluding that it is false.
A fact-check by the Cable found that “mainstream media platforms such as The Nation and Daily Post, which also published the claim, have deleted the report as seen here and here”.
Read the original story, with links and other resources.
Africa Check is a non-partisan organisation which promotes accuracy in public debate and in the media. Twitter @AfricaCheck and www.africacheck.org