A U.S soldier, Zainab James has embarked on a search for her Nigerian father identified as Lateef Quadri.
Zainab, who was born in 1994 in Brooklyn, New York by a Jamaican mother, said her father wasn’t present at her birth but chose her name.
According to the U.S Army officer, her late mother was friends with her biological father’s sister when they worked in a jewelry store.
In a Facebook post on Sunday, August 10, 2025, she shared photos of her mother with her male friends at the store, hoping that one of them might be her father.
“Update: Mother’s name : Claudine James, born December 9, 1969 in Montego Bay, Jamaica (deceased) Hey All! A real shot in the dark but why not! My mom(pictured) got pregnant with me in 1993 ( I was born 1994) while living in Brooklyn New York. I’m looking for my father or any of his family. All I know is he was Nigerian, possibly named Lateef Quadri or something like that. They didn’t have a long term relationship as he wasn’t present at my birth but he did choose my name. No one in my family met him either. Apparently she was friends with his sister who worked in a jewelry store with her,” she wrote.
