EDITORIAL
Why South Africans Rejected Chidimma Adetshina Before She Won Miss Universe Nigeria
Chidimma Adetshina won the just concluded Miss Universe Nigeria 2024, but that was only possible because South Africans hounded her with xenophobic attacks when she attempted to represent the country in the competition.
Born in Soweto, a town right next to Johannesburg, Chidimma moved to Cape Town where she spent the most part of her childhood growing up. Though her father was a Nigerian citizen and her mother had Mozambican roots, she felt completely at home as a South African citizen and saw no need to identify with her Nigerian ancestry, until the unexpected hit her.
The country she had grown to call her home, South Africa, turned its back on her in a painful twist of betrayal when she entered into the Miss South Africa competition.
Chidimma progressed to the finalist stage at the competition and had the crown well within her reach before the South African Minister of Sports, Arts, and Culture, Gaston McKenzie, suddenly opposed her participation as she exposed her Nigerian-Mozambican roots to the shock of South African citizens, and to the relish of fellow Miss South African contestants.
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This accusation of not really being from South Africa triggered a wave of intense, hateful xenophobic attacks on the poor Nigerian girl who only wanted the world to know her name. Chidimma Adetshina was subsequently disqualified from the Miss South Africa competition as her eligibility was spitefully questioned due to her nationality.
Seeing her humiliating and hurried dismissal from the national competition, Silverbird Group extended an invitation to her to participate in the Miss Universe Nigeria competition, which she gladly accepted.
Chidimma entered into the competition as Miss Taraba and won the crown of Miss Universe Nigeria, receiving a cash prize of ten million naira and the opportunity to represent Nigeria in the Miss Universe Pageant this November in Mexico. See the moment she was crowned below:
