Prince Harry and Meghan visit Nigeria, where Duchess hints at her heritage to students: ‘I see myself in each of you’

Their first trip together to Nigeria could have been called a mini royal tour, but Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, I didn’t “work for the royal family” for a few years.

The couple – now residents of California – received a warm welcome in this huge African country on Friday. They were presented with traditional Nigerian wooden bead necklaces, then treated to a dance routine put on by the students at their first stop, the Lightway Academy, in the sprawling capital of Abuja.

There, Harry addressed one of his biggest causes: mental health.

“If you take anything away from today, just know that mental health affects every person,” he told the students. “The more you talk about it, the more you can eliminate the stigma.”

Their visit to the West African country takes on added significance for Meghan, who recently said on her Archetypes podcast that a genealogy test revealed she was “43% Nigerian.” The couple have both referenced their Nigerian origins since this revelation, and Meghan expressed her hope to “dig deeper” into her roots.

“My daughter Lili looked at me and said she could see her reflection in my eyes, and she said, ‘Mom, I see myself in you and you in me,'” she told reporters on Friday. students from Abuja.

“As I look around this room, I see myself in all of you too,” she added, drawing a round of applause from the crowd.

Harry and Meghan are in Nigeria at the invitation of the country’s military, visiting to discuss the future work of the Prince’s Invictus Games Foundation. The association helps injured military personnel and veterans through sport. Nigeria has a similar program and collaborates with Invictus.

The visit to Africa comes just days after Prince Harry traveled alone to London to mark the 10th anniversary of the Invictus Games. The stopover in his former hometown sparked a wave of speculation about a possible reconciliation with the rest of his royal family in Britain.

But it shouldn’t have been. He neither met his brother, Prince Williamnor his father, King Charles III.

At one point, father and son were only two miles apart and attending separate events. According to a statement from the Duke of Sussex, a meeting was unfortunately not possible due to “Her Majesty’s busy schedule” that day. He added that Harry hoped to see his father again soon.

King Charles is currently undergoing treatment for an undisclosed form of cancer, but he has resumed some of his public functionssaying this week that he had “been allowed out of his cage.”

Harry and Meghan were due to end their Nigerian tour on Sunday, following a cultural reception and a charity polo match for wounded veterans.