What does "despite" mean here?
1. All my characters were white and blue-eyed, they played in the snow, they ate apples, and they talked a lot about the weather, how lovely it was that the sun had come out.
2. Now, this despite the fact that I lived in Nigeria. I had never been outside Nigeria.
I can understand "despite the fact that I lived in Nigeria", in which DESPITE is a preposition. I suppose that there could be something missing after THIS in the second sentence, because it is not a complete sentence.
How do you think about it? Thank you!