Ever since the announcement of Prince Harry and Megan Markle’s engagement, melaninated people around the world have been rejoicing about the fact that a semi-melaninated woman will be marrying into the royal family.
The Prince of Wales has announced the engagement of Prince Harry and Ms. Meghan Markle. pic.twitter.com/rtlAnFCWTf— Kensington Palace (@KensingtonRoyal)
The reactions from said community have been hilarious thus far. Like this one about the Prince’s future mother in law:
Prince Harry's future mother-in-law is a black woman with dreadlocks. There are no words for this kind of joy.— S. (@Samara_Linton)
#PrinceHarry 's future wife and mother in law. Black twitter are popping open the Supermalt, coolers of jollof and assorted meat in celebration. 💃🏾💃🏾💃🏾💃🏾 pic.twitter.com/lS0GgmGKFh— Ronke Oke (@RonkeIgeBEM)
And the response to said tweet
pic.twitter.com/lRMJLYXVRK— Pa’lante Mami (@NegraYLibre)
What we have really enjoyed seeing is the speculations about the fashion at the wedding as well as what it is going to be like when her mother’s side of the family hits up the wedding venue.
Black women, what y'all wearing to the royal wedding? It's a spring wedding. Got mines: pic.twitter.com/r0Mheh45Ld— Morgan Jerkins (@MorganJerkins)
Please understand the Black celebs will be buying hats in Compton, Chicago, St. Louis & Detroit. These hats will be matched to outfits that...whew. The colors alone...I am so ready for the commentary on the colors. pic.twitter.com/40Rz32GO2s— Mikki Kendall (@Karnythia)
Can't wait for Meghan's black aunties to roll up to the Royal Wedding like pic.twitter.com/KLxr1akm4n— Sylvia Obell (@SylviaObell)
But the best tweet doing the rounds has to be this tweet about the moment in which Prince Harry knew that he was going black and never going back featuring not one, but three South African women; Bonang Matheba, Terry Pheto and Gugu Kweli Kheswa.
pic.twitter.com/ADYYI3qk2N— bolu babalola. (@BeeBabs)
The image featuring Matheba and Pheto with the prince was taken in Johannesburg at the Sentebale Gala Dinner at Summer Place on February 27, 2013.
Sentebale is a charity founded by Prince Harry and Prince Seeiso of Lesotho with the aim of helping victims of extreme poverty and Lesotho's HIV/AIDS epidemic get the support they need to lead healthy and productive lives.
Captured: The moment Prince Harry realised Jollof was his future pic.twitter.com/6hsEVRoIsO— Hi Susan (@Wkhnage)
The other photo featuring Kheswa, was taken in Newtown, Johannesburg on a different royal visit in December 2015 during her presentation on big data and how it can be used to change the African landscape as part of the Prince’s meet and greet with young, local entrepreneurs.
When your girl texts you about the salad she made for dinner but you can see Jollof rice in your future. pic.twitter.com/kCV37Z2Wze— The Baby Maker (@iamsupervillain)
Why did Prince Harry look like he was FIENIN to taste some of her fufu and jollof?!— ENIKO DONT PLAY! (@turnandstomp)
Because Kheswa was so focused on preparing for her presentation, she missed seeing him being led to her section, and she only got to meet him afterwards.
“He’s pretty cool, we had a brief chat about how to say my name [and] I cracked a random joke about it also being my rap name [laughs] but he said it’s a lovely name,” explained Kheswa in an interview.
Kheswa, who is a creative director and founder of Hello Africa Travel, said she was so excited about the live analytics demo she had prepared that the magnitude of the situation didn’t really hit her in the moment.
After the photo in question was captured, Kheswa reached global meme status as a symbol for the moment Prince Harry knew he was ready to “risk it all for some jollof.” She took her newfound meme celebrity status in her stride and is still quite gracious about it’s re-emergence following the engagement announcement.
Kheswa's current focus is her Hello Africa Travel platform, where she curates immersive and diverse travel experiences around the African continent based on a user's budget, likes and preferences as well as their prefered travel dates.
Prince Harry and Meghan will get married in may 2018 at St George's Chapel in Windsor Castle and will reportedly be planning ceremony themselves.
Main image credit: twitter.com/iamsupervillain