Chidimma Onwe Adetshina has faced relentless controversy and vitriol since being announced as a contestant for the Miss South Africa competition on Twitter.
Who is Chidimma Onwe Adetshina?
This 23-year-old law student from South Africa’s Varsity College in Cape Town has become the focal point of a xenophobic storm, accused of not being “South African enough.”
Chidimma was born in Soweto, South Africa, to a Nigerian father and a Mozambican mother with Zulu heritage.
The contest organisers have confirmed that Chidimma is fully qualified to compete, as she is a well-documented citizen of South Africa, not an illegal immigrant. In South Africa, citizenship can be obtained by birth, registration, or naturalization.
By being born in South Africa, Chidimma is a South African citizen. Despite advancing to the final stage of the competition, an online petition calling for her disqualification has garnered 7,500 signatures.
The situation escalated further when the Minister of Sports, Arts, and Culture tweeted, “We truly can’t have Nigerians compete in our SA competition. I want to get all the facts before I comment, but it’s giving funny vibes already.”
Interestingly, the previous Miss South Africa, Natasha Joubert, had a Caucasian father, yet her ethnicity was never questioned.
A Twitter account purportedly representing Chidimma issued a statement on her behalf, but Chidimma’s Instagram account clearly states she is not on Twitter.
Chidimma’s participation in the contest has sparked an intriguing debate, underscoring that ethnicity and citizenship are distinct concepts. A citizen of a country has all the rights thereof, regardless of their parents’ ethnicity.
