Miss South Africa hopeful Chidimma Vanessa Adetshina quietly snuck out a response to ongoing backlash over her nationality.
Chidimma responds to xenophobic attacks
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The 23-year-old has remarkably held her composure and resisted the urge to outrightly retaliate against an onslaught campaign targeted at discrediting her eligibility status in the Miss SA pageant.
The prominent voices of the likes of Sports Minister and Patriotic Alliance (PA) leader Gayton McKenzie and ActionSA president Herman Mashaba have amplified calls for Adetshina, who was birthed by a Nigerian father and mother of South African descent, to lose her place in the Top 13.
In a viral X post, McKenzie confirmed that in his capacity as president of the PA, a rising political opposition party whose slogan ‘abahambe!’ is a call for the mass deportation of illegal immigrants, an investigation will be launched to ascertain “whether her mother has in fact ever been South African.”
“The contestant herself has also not clarified this issue. And this does not give the people of South Africa comfort,” part of the statement read.
Mashaba, reacting to a snippet of an interview on ‘The Ben Stesh Show’, where a man claiming to be Adetshina’s father offered conflicting accounts of his background and timeline in South Africa, stressed that while the Chidimma saga was “getting messy,” it was “very necessary to interrogate.
“We shall await developments,” the ActionSA leader tweeted.
Amid the backlash, Adetshina has kept a relatively low profile, limiting her online interactions to posts documenting her journey in the 2024 Miss SA pageant and reposting supporters fielding a solid defence in her honour.
One of the posts, which Adetshina used as a response to the xenophobic rhetoric, addressed the growing presence of Afrophobia in South Africa.
What is Afrophobia?
Afrophobia is a term that describes an irrational fear or hatred towards people of African descent, often manifesting as prejudice, discrimination, and xenophobia.
This fear and hatred are directed at people simply because they are African or have African heritage.
The scandal surrounding Chidimma provides a poignant example of Afrophobia.
Chidimma was born in South Africa to a Nigerian father and a South African mother with Mozambican roots.
Despite her South African citizenship and having been raised in Johannesburg, she faced significant backlash due to her Nigerian heritage.
Critics questioned her eligibility to represent South Africa in the pageant, with some arguing that her non-South African parentage disqualified her.
This xenophobic sentiment was evident on social media, where some users called for her disqualification and even suggested she should compete in Nigerian pageants instead.
Chidimma herself expressed her distress over the situation, stating that the attacks felt like “black-on-black hate.”
She emphasised the need for unity and peace among Africans, criticizing the xenophobic comments as pathetic and uncalled for
Is Chidimma eligible to partake in the Miss SA pageant?
Adetshina is eligible to partake in the Miss South Africa pageant.
The eligibility criteria for the Miss South Africa pageant specify that contestants must hold a South African ID or passport, which Chidimma possesses as she was born and raised in Johannesburg.
Despite her Nigerian and Mozambican heritage, her South African citizenship makes her eligible to compete.
The controversy surrounding her participation largely stems from xenophobic sentiments and misunderstandings about her heritage, not from any violation of the pageant’s official rules.