Miss South Africa contestant’s withdrawal from contest exposes racial tensions

The withdrawal of a contestant from the Miss South Africa pageant has highlighted the complex dynamics of identity, race and immigration in South Africa, 30 years after the end of the racist apartheid regime.

The participation of Chidimma Adetshina, 23, in the national beauty pageant sparked controversy in South Africa as soon as it was revealed that her father is Nigerian and her mother has her roots in Mozambique. Some South Africans argued that she should not represent the country internationally, since the rules of the contest state that the contestants must have South African citizenship. That entails being born in South Africa and at least one parent being either a South African citizen or a permanent resident. Insults such as makwerekwere — a derogatory name for foreigners — began to appear on social media. The xenophobia was exacerbated when rumors began to circulate that Adetshina’s mother had false documentation, prompting the Patriotic Alliance, the party led by Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie, to announce that it will take legal action against her.

The South African Ministry of Home Affairs launched an investigation, at the request of the Miss South Africa organizers, to verify the nationality of Adetshina and promptly reported that prima facie reasons exist to believe that Adetshina’s mother has committed offenses of “fraud and identity theft,” complicating the model’s legal situation. Shortly afterward, the model announced on Instagram that she was pulling out of the Miss South Africa pageant. “After much careful consideration, I have made the difficult decision to withdraw myself from the competition for the safety and wellbeing of my family and I,” her statement read late last week.

The controversy over Adetshina’s nationality has shone a spotlight on a latent racism towards darker-skinned South Africans from elsewhere in a country where the white population is around 7%. Adetshina broke her silence on the issue when she gave an interview to the South African media site Sowetan Live in mid-July: “I just feel that all of this is Black-on-Black hate, as I’m not the only one in this competition who has a surname that’s not South African. I just feel like the attention is on me because of my skin color, which I think is a disadvantage… it’s also been something I had to overcome growing up.”

“The attacks on Chidimma Adetshina did not originate from questions about her eligibility as a citizen, but on her appearance, her alleged foreignness, the ethnicity of her parents,” says Michael Morris, spokesman for the Institute of Race Relations (IRR) in South Africa.

Nombulelo Shange, a sociologist from Free State University, stresses the racial aspect of this controversy: “There is still an apartheid mentality whereby blackness is thought to be ugly, inferior and bad. Even Black people have assumed this way of thinking.” Adetshina is in the spotlight because of the color of her skin, Shange tells EL PAÍS. “In a beauty pageant, people who have been conditioned to think their own skin is ugly are outraged: ‘How dare this one have so much self-confidence,’” she says.

Hostility towards migrants

According to experts like Shange, South Africa is experiencing growing hostility towards immigrants — there are 2.4 million in a country of 60 million inhabitants, although unofficial figures are probably higher. This is especially the case if these migrants are non-white. “Other African nationals are being used as scapegoats for the difficulties the country is experiencing, a mistaken view,” she states.

In South Africa — one of the most unequal countries in the world — 32.6% of citizens are unemployed, according to the 2023 national employment survey, and this does not include those who have stopped looking for work which pumps the rate up to 44.1%. “Eighty percent of the people survive on only 20% of the resources, the rich hoard the land and no social mobility is possible. As Black Africans, we fight among ourselves for scarce resources, and that ends up producing frustration,” Shange explains.

South Africa has experienced a surge in xenophobia in recent years, with incidents often involving members of the so-called Operation Dudula, a violent group that assaults businesses owned by foreign nationals. The number of foreigners living in South Africa has more than doubled since 1996, when there were just one million registered foreigners, according to the South African Human Sciences Research Council.

Ayanda Sishi-Wigzell, political analyst and journalist, recalls how she experienced the racism that raises its head from time to time in South Africa. At 17, she was questioned in the street by the police, who asked her in Zulu how to say “elbow” to see if she knew the word — a common technique to identify foreigners. “There is a deep-seated Afrophobia, a certain hatred of other people who are also Black, but not South African [...] that seems to be connected to a certain sense of superiority because our country has infrastructure that others don’t have,” Sishi-Wigzell tells EL PAÍS. “This has built a certain perception that [migrants, refugees and asylum seekers] are coming to take resources from us.” She especially blames social media for fueling hate speech. “As the use of social networks increases, there is growing misinformation in national languages, not just English.” And disinformation ends up moving to sites that are harder to monitor, such as WhatsApp groups.

Adetshina’s exit from the beauty pageant appears to be a win to those who gave free rein to the xenophobia against her, such as the X user who wrote: “Nigerians are terrible citizens in any country, and they always end up proving us right.” According to Michael Morris, “The chauvinists and xenophobes will feel justified, and the cause of narrow-minded nationalism will seem stronger.” Meanwhile, Shange adds, “We are not a racist country, we are hospitable, but the voices of hate end up being heard more clearly.”

In response to the outpouring of hatred against Adetshina and immigrants, a young TikTok user said, “I want to tell all Africans that we are not all like this [in South Africa].” Last week, after the South African Home Affairs Ministry announced the investigation into the matter of the young woman’s nationality, this user added, “Are you happy now that you have ruined this girl’s life? Is this going to bring you more jobs, more land, is this going to make your communities safer?”

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