Rihanna
02/24/2016 – Rihanna – BRIT Awards 2016 – Arrivals – O2 Arena – London, UK – Photo Credit: Landmark / PR Photos
Birth Name: Robyn Rihanna Fenty
Place of Birth: Saint Michael, Barbados
Date of Birth: February 20, 1988
Ethnicity:
*father – mix of African-Barbadian and European-Barbadian [Scottish, English, Irish]
*mother – African-Guyanese
Rihanna is a Barbadian singer, songwriter, businessperson, dancer, record producer, and actress. She has been Barbadian Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, since 20 September, 2018.
She is the daughter of Ronald Fenty, who is from Barbados, and Monica (Brathwaite), who is from Guyana. She has two children with her partner, American rapper, songwriter, and record producer ASAP Rocky.
Rihanna’s paternal grandfather was African-Barbadian. Rihanna’s paternal grandmother, who is white, has Scottish, English, and Irish ancestry. Rihanna’s mother is of African-Guyanese descent. In an interview with Allure magazine, Rihanna stated that she was bullied in school and called ‘white’ by the other kids while growing up in Barbados.
Rihanna’s paternal grandfather was named Reginald Leslie Forde (the son of Helen Forde). Helen was the daughter of Joseph Nathanael “Joe” Forde and Louisa Jane Bascom.
Rihanna’s paternal grandmother is Elizabeth “Betty” Fenty (the daughter of Stanley Fitzherbert Fenty and Hilda Olga Coppin). Elizabeth is white. Her parents were born in Barbados. The surname Fenty is usually Scottish and the surname Coppin is usually English. Rihanna’s grandmother is also cited as having Irish ancestry. Elizabeth is from a family of “Red Legs,” descendants of slaves from the British Isles who were sent to Barbados. Stanley likely was the grandson of John Fitzherbert Fenty and Mary Louisa Jane Fenty.
Rihanna’s maternal grandfather is named Lionel Brathwaite.
Rihanna’s maternal grandmother is named Clara “Dolly” Viola Venetta Johnson.
Rihanna in 2011
Sources: Genealogy of Rihanna – https://www.geni.com
Death record of Rihanna’s paternal great-grandparents, Stanley Fitzherbert Fenty and Hilda Olga Coppin – http://www.findagrave.com
Obituary of Rihanna’s maternal grandmother, Clara Viola Venetta (Johnson) Brathwaite – http://downesandwilson.com
I CONSIDER MYSELF AS AFRICAN. OUR WOMEN WERE MADE TO HAVE SEX WITH THE WHITE SLAVE MASTER. LETS ALL REMEMBER THAT WE DIDN’T COME HERE TO BUILD A COUNTRY VOLUNTARILY AND NOT GET PAID. AND FOR ALL OF YOUR INFORMATION THERE ARE MORE WHITE CRACK ADDICTS THAN BLACKS. WHITES COMMIT MORE VIOLENT CRIMES AND MURDERS THAN WE DO. YET THE MEDIA WHO CONTROL S HOW SOME OF US THINK. WILL LEAD YOU TO BELIEVE THAT WE’RE MORE VIOLENT AND LESS EDUCATED. YOU KNOW THE OLD SAYING ”THE LAST ONE HIRED” IT’S TRUE FOLKS ! I THINK SOME ARE JEALOUS BECAUSE OUR RACE HAS ENDURED SLAVERY AND SURVIVED. AND WE DOMINATE ANY SPORT THAT’S REVELENT IN AMERICA !
@linda brown: You’re the one that is stupiditly ignorant And Racist 1. The African people were enslaved but so were many other races of people that the English, French, and German slave drivers were exploiting what about the Native American Indians and Irish and Scottish people who were enslaved and grew to become successful! 2. Your statistics are Shit, people commit crimes based on their lack of humanity not due to race! My ancestors were enslaved they were also brutalised by the Saxons the english and german people but i don’t pre-judge a human being before i even get to know them just based on nationality! P.S RIHANNA AND HER FAMILY ARE BOTH PROUD OF THEIR IRISH HERITAGE SO SHUT THE FUCK UP WHINNING!
Slavery ended. And although I think it was wrong and disgusting. People of the 20th century are not like that… I dont think its nice how people still talk about it and make white people of this century feel guilty when they probably agree with equal rights just as much as African people do.
When Rihanna first came out in 05 I thought she was a half breed, half white for her light skin and green eyes, and half black because you can tell she has black in her.
“half breed” ?? What Century are you from.
Anyway most people in the Caribbean are part Iris or Scottish.
She is no less “Black” than most Caribbean people.
Skin color in the Caribbean is like Hair color to Europeans. You can also have all complexions in on family.
oh half breed is racist now please!!!! Rihanna is beautiful, and to me she looks mixed but beautiful unlike other mixed girls like Jessica Alba and Rosario Dawson, both fucking ugly.
Jessica alba isn’t really mixed. She is majority white with a small percentage of native. And she is a million times better looking then rihanna…:)
Jessica Alba is white and Mexican.
I’m from the Caribbean as well. Most of us are mixed and I think it makes us more loving as well as more open-minded to differnet races/cultures. My ancestry is African decent,French, & Carib Indian by way of the Amazon(Brasil). Unfortunatley,I got the most mistreatment from black kids in comparison to white kids. Like Rihanna, I was asked if I’m white. People are people and we al have something good to offer. Our outside appearances do not define us. It is only par of a whole.
clearly, u havent left the country u were born in! caribbean pple DO NOT have one specific look! u cant assume something by a damn video! u sound ignorant. she shot that video in jamaica and im from jamaica and there are A LOT of us who look like rihanna! some way lighter than rihanna u would almost think they r light. and ur reasoning for the eye color is bulshit. there are many pple way darker than rihanna with hazel/green eyes and both of their parent r clearly black! study biology and u will get a better understanding of recesive genes and dormant genes!
I have actually left the country I’ve been born in thanks Jodie and I’m entitled to my own opinion. I know Caribbean people don’t have one specific look, but the majority do look very dark skinned I’m sure. And why are there so many Jamaican’s who are light skinned as you say??? Because of the immigration of European’s hundred’s of years ago to the present day to Jamaica! And you are probably a ‘Light-skinned Jamaican’ due to the fact you’ve probably got Caucasian ethnicity somewhere in your background too! I’ve never met a Black person with naturally blue/green/hazel eyes unless they have some Caucasian blood in their past. So I suggest that if there are a lot of Jamaican’s with blue/green/hazel eyes then somewhere in their past they probably have white heritage too! FACT everybody knows Jamaica is a huge melting pot of different ethnicities due to the fact for hundreds of years there was the slave trade which bought African people over in the thousands, Native Indians who were there before anybody else and the Europeans who had plantations and settlements all over the Caribbean. I’m sure most Jamaican’s have mostly African descent, but I’m also sure that the one’s who are lighter skinned and have different colour eyes also have Caucasian heritage in their background too!!! You mention dormant and recessive genes?! Well that’s why some Caribbean people have features that are more Caucasian or Native American because of dormant gene’s in their gene pool that have been carried through their family tree from hundreds of years ago to them now.
thank u for that info.. ppl need 2 understand that.
Not all light skinned black people are mixed with white. They may be mixed with native american, or chinese etc. Also, if it behoths you to research you will see that there was an ancient tribe in Africa known as the Fuller Tribe that were light to light brown complexioned. Further more, if all human life started in Africa, according to scientific research that ALL mitochondrial DNA markers trace back to Africa, that would mean that white people, along with all other people, come from black people and if African can produce white people with light eyes than why can’t they produce black people with light eyes. I’m just saying.
Truth be told, I don’t think it should really matter one way or another. People need to be more concerned with being good humans rather than all this focus on color and complexion. We will never change the world and peoples way of thinking if we keep acting like a person is better or prettier than anyone else because they are mixed with something else.
The mutation for light eye colouring didn’t happen in Africa. Although all people originally came from Africa it wasn’t until they left Africa that the mutation for light eyes occurred. Light eyes are depigmented like white skin and blond/red hair. These mutations happened when people went to cold, sunless climates. If you think about it light eyes and skin would not be advantageous in sunny climes. Any light traits in Africa would be from back migration.
@karmelleyez Well the mutation for light eyes happened in Europe Romania to be exact. After people had left Africa 600 to 10000 years ago,We all originally had brown eyes.Its a genetic mutatin that which switched off the ability to produce brown eyes,,So it actually happened after people had moved out of Africa to Europe and the climate was colder that is why our skin colour changed after generations aswell.So you theory is kind of wrong about African people having lighter eyes yes if they are mixed they could have a chance not if both parents are from Africa.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eye_color
While that is a good point, bottom line: Rihanna’s grandmother is fully white Irish. So arguing that blacks can have green eyes may be true but it’s just afrocentric and kind of silly. Her green eyes and light skin come from her Irish blood, big deal. She’s still no less or more black. She knows she’s black, so what’s the problem?
I think it’s clear Rihanna has mostly African heritage, but it’s also clear she has white heritage too even if it is minuscule. I mean where else would she get them green/hazel eyes from?! I’ve never met a person of purely African descent who has green/blue/hazel eyes naturally unless one of their Parents was white or they had white heritage in there family. I also thought when she filmed the video to her song ‘Man Down’, which she shot in the Caribbean (Where she is originally from) how much she stood out next to the local people, as they seemed so much darker skinned than she did so it come’s as no surprise to me that she was bullied for being lighter-skinned when she was younger. I think people should just accept the fact that she accepts her ethnic mixed-background, so what if she doesn’t claim to be of completely African descent, she isn’t anyway!
Rihanna is very pretty, however, if you watch her older video’s you will see that she, like many other black women artist happened to appear lighter skinned as time past. That being said, I find it hard to believe, along with many other Bajan, that she was bullied for being light because everyone else was so dark. It’s like a fat kid gets teased for being fat, it dosn’t mean that they are the only fat person or one of the few fat people around. It’s just what someone chose to tease them about. She, by far, is not of any minority in Bardados. Barbados is full of beautiful people of all races and colors. There are plenty, and I mean plenty of brown (mixed looking) people in the caribbean.. Why that was not expressed in her video, I don’t know as there are also plenty brown people in Jamaica. None the less, we live in a world where most everyone has some type of mixed heritage, from the blackest black to the whitest white.
why do all these black people claim white heritage in them when the White people at all cost never claim that they have black heritage in them. I have never heard any White person say ” i am 1/3 black”
It’s sad my beautiful African brothers and sisters
We never claim that we have “black heritage”? Come on, every human on earth have black heritage. Africa is our nest. Besides, I believe they know about irish descent when it is two generations ago^^ And, not that there is anything wring in beeing black, but I would say Rihanna is far from it.
Oh, and completly white people will almost never have black ancestors from more modern times, given that pigment genes are dominant. That is, the offspring will most often become brown, sometimes black, but in rare cases black. (given a black and a white parent)
have u seen rihannas parents? have u seen how dark rihannas mother and grandmother is? they r tryese dark or akon dark! NOW NEXT TIME U WRITE ABOUT RIHANNA BEING FAR FROM BLACK, I SUGGEST U DO UR RESEARCH :p
It’s so sad Nevaid they have been brainwashed to think Black is ugly….when you see me I’m Black all the other things in me guess what don’t matter I am what I appear. I LOVE ME!!
Actually, nevaid Nyagwande, I can think of many ‘white’ people who are very proud of their ‘black’ heritage. Barack Obama is one of them, you may have heard of him–he’s quite famous. Hallie Berry, Alicia Keys… are some others.
The truth is, people who are mixed black/white appear more black than white and are therefore more often than not labelled ‘black’. So when they ‘claim white heritage’ as you say, they are actually just stating who they are. The likelyhood of someone who looks ‘white’ having any signficant ‘black’ heritage is much less. Therefore there are less ‘white’ people claiming to be of black heritage.
Why on earth do we have to label people anyway…