On her second visit to Nigeria, Chidimma Adetsina won that country’s Miss Universe beauty pageant.
Ms Adetsina was crowned on Saturday in Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city, after she was forced to withdraw from the Miss Universe pageant in her country of birth, South Africa, after public scrutiny of her Nigerian heritage sparked a national debate about nationality. , immigration and ultimately xenophobia.
“I think I really embody the spirit of perseverance and resilience,” Ms. Adetsina said on that. Social media account After her victory, a sash draped over her shoulders, a shining crown on her head. Later, in an interview with The BBC’s Nigerian Pidgin outletHer composure broke when she was asked about her experiences.
“Just now, it’s starting to cloud over me, and affect me,” she said, choking back tears. She added that along with her duties as Nigeria’s representative at the Miss Universe pageant, she will seek therapy.
While beauty pageants have long been derided as out of step with ancient and contemporary feminism, they remain popular. If anything, global competitions have become a source of national pride. South Africa crowned a deaf woman for the first time this year and there is at least one transgender contestant.
A competitor with Nigerian heritage, however, proved too much for some.
Ms. Adetsina, 23, made it to the finals of the Miss South Africa pageant, a reinvention of the traditional pageant that now resembles a reality television show. Her identity then was overshadowed by her beauty. Mrs. Adetsina was born in the historic Soweto township of South Africa to a Nigerian father and a South African mother who also has Mozambican ancestry.
The investigation became so intense that South Africa’s Department of Home Affairs launched an investigation that eventually charged his mother with identity fraud.
“An innocent South African mother, whose identity may have been stolen as part of a fraud perpetrated by Adetsina’s mother, suffered as a result” because she could not register the birth of her child, the ministry said. said in a statement On August 7. Authorities said they planned to pursue criminal charges, but Ms. Adetsina was acquitted because “she was an infant when the activities took place in 2001.”
Days before the competition, Ms. Adetsina backed out citing the safety of herself and her family. It was then that the organizers of the Miss Universe Nigeria pageant invited her to Lagos. She represented her father’s hometown, Taraba State in eastern Nigeria, although she said in a post-pageant interview that she had never been there before and had only traveled to Lagos once. However, she received enough public votes to qualify for the finals.
Maurice Sokari, an entrepreneur in Lagos, said he voted for Ms Adetsina because he was drawn to her story of diverse African identities. “I think her win broke a lot of stories,” he said.
Okolo Miracle Obichina, a fashion stylist who also voted for her, said: “It was crucial for me to see Chidinma win, especially after she put up with xenophobic South Africans. It amazes me that black people still hate each other in 2024.
Even in Nigeria, her multinational heritage has raised questions about whether she is the right person to represent the country at the global competition in Mexico in November. Some questioned why she was allowed to enter the competition at such a late stage. Others asked if her victory was part of the rivalry between Africa’s two largest economies – Nigeria and South Africa.
“She hasn’t been to Nigeria in 20 years,” television host and journalist Blessings Mosugu said on a talk show Jesiri.
“Does she know where Taraba State is?” asked another host, Tolulope Adeluru-Balogun.
In South Africa, Ms. Adetsina’s hybrid identity opened decades-long wounds, in a country where black South Africans sometimes view migrants from the continent as “economic warriors” against whom they must compete for already meager resources, Sisonke Misimang said. South African writer and essayist.
South Africa has a complex relationship with the continent, particularly beyond South Africa, Ms Masimang said. Apartheid’s ideology of racial segregation used uncivilized Africans to oppress black South Africans and instill deep fear in the countries and peoples north of South Africa.
In post-apartheid South Africa, this antagonism has sometimes resulted Sporadic riots and brutal mob violence. Politicians have also often used anti-immigrant rhetoric as a dog whistle. One party, the Patriotic Alliance, whose leader, Gayton McKenzie, has become minister for sports, arts and culture in the coalition government, asked the court to compel organizers to disqualify Ms. Adetsina.
In many ways, it represents the growing number of young Africans whose identities defy borders, Ms Masimang said. She is also from the generation of post-apartheid South Africans who seem determined to ignore the past.
“If South Africa allows itself to be cosmopolitan, instead of shrinking back in fear of what it means to be a melting pot, we will be able to embrace and celebrate everyone for who they are,” Ms Masimang said.
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