On Saturday which marked the second day trip of Meghan and Harry to Nigeria, the duchess of susses arriving almost an hour late to the women in leadership summit, gave a speech referencing her 43% Nigerian heritage.
She told the audience: ‘I want to start by saying thank you very much for just how gracious you’ve all been in welcoming my husband and I to this country… my country.’
‘I am just flattered and honored and inspired. It has been a whirlwind 24 hours since we arrived, and I very quickly got the memo that I need to wear more colour, so I can fit in with all of you and your incredible fashion.’
Meghan revealed that the first thing she did when she discovered she was 43% Nigerian was to call her mom, because she wanted to know if she had any awareness of it.
Meghan went on: ‘Being African-American, part of it is really not knowing so much about your lineage or background, where you come from specifically.
‘And it was exciting for both of us to discover more and understand what that really means. Never in a million years would I have understood it as much as I do now.
‘It’s been really eye-opening and humbling to be able to know more about my heritage and to be able to know this is just the beginning of that discovery.’
Nigerian women are ‘brave, resilient, courageous, powerful, beautiful’, Meghan said: ‘It is the most flattering thing to be in that company, to be in your company.’
She also added: ‘I often find that whatever travels I’ve done, regardless if it’s Nigeria or another country around the world, oftentimes when women reach the peak of success, they leave.
‘But you need to come back home. You need to at least be a familiar face for the next generation to say: “Oh, she looks like me – and I can be that.”
‘And I think that is a really key piece in all of it… It’s defined by, and you still always want to come back home, because that’s how you’re going to help shift any sort of generational pattern that might be stifling, especially for young girls who need to see someone who looks like them in that same position.’
‘I hope that I could do justice to the role model that I think so many young women deserve to have,’ Meghan replied a moderator.
‘Obviously in the face of all of you here, I know that they, they see that. But being able to be a small part of that means a lot.’
After the summit, Meghan and Harry joined a volleyball match with Harry playing too. Later on they went on a lunch with the Nigerian defence minister and joined a reception with the Nigerian chief of defence staff Christopher Musa.
