Beauty pageant xenophobia is going on right now in South Africa, in this 2024. A South African born woman, Chidinma Vanessa Onwe Adetshina is rejected by her fellow South Africans. Their allegation is that her birth father is a Nigerian. They do not agree that her mother’s Zulu ancestry makes her South African.

The beauty pageant xenophobia began when Ms Chidinma Adetshina entered the Miss South Africa pageant. The South African citizens grumbled about her being in the pageant at all. But by the time she made Top sixteen at the ongoing pageant, all hell broke loose. And her citizenship was called to question.

Not only was the nationality of the Zulu descendant called to question, aspersion was cast on her father. The South Africans said Nigerians worked questionable jobs and that cancels Vanessa’s legibility to compete. Even the pageant organization is caught in the cross-fire. But the Zulu-Nigerian is fighting back with the following points.

To start with, Vanessa was born and bred in South Africa, to a South African woman. She is legally a South African, complete with a South African passport. Also, the South African pageant organization has come out to confirm that Vanessa Onwe is very eligible to compete because she is a South African citizen.

Hopefully, the South Africans will understand these submissions and the beauty pageant xenophobia will stop. Ms Then give Vanessa Onwe the support she needs to win the title. After all, Angolan-South African Ms. Carreira, won the title in 1992. And she even went on to represent SA at the Ms World Pageant.

Besides, it was unfair to brand her a non-South African after she has spent all of her twenty-three years with them. How did they expect her to turn her back on the only life she ever knew? Godspeed.