Chidimma Fought For Africa And Won, By Kunle Awosiyan

Her journey to stardom became excruciating when a country broke pageantry procedure to stop her dream and another country had to break a procedure to make her realise the dream.

Chidimma Adetshina pulled out of Miss South Africa pageantry over her nationality. Her Nigerian name opened South African’s vein of xenophobia. They never wanted her.

But the organisers of Miss Universe Nigeria, the Silverbird Group, rescued the situation even when the selection of its delegates had closed. They offered Chidimma a lifeline. She flew in from South Africa, competed in Nigeria and won.

A few months later, she was in Mexico to contest at the global stage with 129 other beautiful women across the world. She emerged first runner-up on Saturday night.

Miss Denmark, Victoria Kjaer Theilvig , won the crown where Adetshina put Africa on the podium as the first Runner-Up.

Ironically, Miss South Africa, Mia le Roux, withdrew from the global contest over ill health. I wish her soonest recovery.

Adetshina made history, becoming first African to reach this level in Miss Universe pageantry, surpassing the 2019 record where Nigeria was among the best ten.

She said shortly after the contest, “I’m proud of myself and I have not won this for myself but for Africa.”

She had long put behind her what she went through in SA as she now looks forward to a united Africa that is devoid of hate and envy.

She fought through, scaling the barriers one after the other and coming so close to win the global crown.

There are lessons to learn and it should begin now that Nigeria and South Africa should collaborate in many ways instead of engaging in unholy rivalry.

If not for unnecessary xenophobia, Chidimma Adetshina would have represented South Africa at the Miss Universe 2024 and this wouldn’t have stopped Nigeria from presenting a candidate too.

However, the withdrawal of the South Africa’s delegate, in a way, reduced the chances of an Africa clinching the coveted crown. But thanks to Nigeria and Chidimma Adetshina for saving the face of Africa.

What South Africa saw in Chidimma but Xenophobia did not allow it to pursue was the same thing that Nigeria saw and presented to the world.

The world embraced the gift not because it was coming from Nigeria but because it is a good product. If Africa can unite and present quality, definitely the world will embrace Africa.