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When news broke about the qualification of a certain Chidinma Adetshina for the final of the Miss South Africa pageant, it sparked massive celebration all across Nigeria.
Why? Even though she was born in South Africa, her name screams Nigerian and thus, Nigerians fraternized with “one of their own” and threw their support for her. Amidst protests and hunger, Adetshina’s exploit in faraway South Africa was a ray of hope—that despite everything currently going on, something good could still come out of Nigeria.
Shockingly, it became a tale of two worlds. While Nigerians celebrated her success, many South Africans rose in battle against the finalist. Questions over her ‘true’ nationality rose and many refused to accept her. In their words, she wasn’t “South African enough.”
Events, soon, took an ugly turn as she suddenly became a target for xenophobic attacks. On social media, cyberbullying and hate speech were targeted against her. Calls from her to step down became rife and were soon backed up by threats by stalkers and xenophobic persons on social media.
The final straw that broke the camel’s back was when the pageant itself sought the Home Ministry to investigate her citizenship. A case of fraud was then brought up against Chidinma’s mother—who was subsequently alleged to have stolen the identity of another. Even Lawmakers in South Africa rose against Chidinma. It, therefore, came as no surprise when she took to Instagram on Thursday, Aug 8, 2024, to announce her withdrawal from the competition.
Xenophobia 1-0 Chidinma. Mother Africa wept.
Forgive me if I am mistaken, but I was of the learned opinion that birth is a legal and valid way of attaining citizenship in any country. Am I wrong? In fact, I know of many Nigerians elected to political offices in the United States of America. How did they manage that? They were simply born on American soil and, thus, automatically viewed as citizens.
It does appear that the law takes a different angle when it comes to a person of foreign descent trying to enjoy benefits regular South Africans enjoy. Isn’t that how Xenophobia surfaced in the first place?
The narrative of “foreigners” enjoying on South African soil irked the natives and forced them to start killing the said foreigners and looting their shops. It seems a taboo for non-South Africans (which Chidinma certainly isn’t) to enjoy anything in South Africa.
In that case, I ask, why not shut your borders and make the country for only South Africans? That way, there’d be peace, right? But, no. South Africa will open its borders to non-natives and then turn on those natives for doing well on their soil.
For context, the then President of Nigeria, Olusegun Obasanjo, spent billions of Nigerian money in the fight against Xenophobia. No African country has been more invested in a South Africa free of Xenophobia than Nigeria has. But, what do we get for that? Our citizens killed, attacked and literally forced out.
To be as unambiguous as I can be and to put it quite frankly, the whole inquest into Chidinma Adetshina’s case has nothing to do with legality but all to do with a frown on a person deemed to be “not South African enough” trying to outperform full South Africans on their soil.
It’s that simple. If it were not so, why are all the other finalists not being subjected to inquests like Adetshina is? The witch-hunt becomes glaring for all to see and the root cause is revealed—Xenophobia in all its hellish glory.
I won’t argue whether or not Chidinma’s mom did steal the identity of another, but, one thing I will argue is the fact that Chiddinma was, indeed, born in Soweto, South Africa, and that, none of them have been able to discredit till date. On that premise, whatever her mother did or did not do has no bearing whatsoever on her status as a citizen of South Africa.
Viewing the hate comments against Chidinma makes me weep for Africa. This is 2024 and we still do this to ourselves as Africans. Pathetic. This is not a white man hating on a black man. This is black man on black man, racism among ourselves. How this can sit well in any normal human being’s conscience is quite inexplicable.
There are far-reaching consequences of this that many short-sighted South Africans may not see. For one, displays of Xenophobia like this portray a bad image of the country. Two, it scares away people from touring or investing there. It might not be too visible in the short term, but, the ripple effects in the long term will show that you cannot run away from it.
In summary, this is not the South Africa Nelson Mandela fought for. This is not the South Africa Mandela spent years in jail fighting for.
If there is no inclusiveness, the purpose of that struggle has been soundly defeated and we may as well laugh at Mandela in his grave for wasting his precious time.
