Nigerian beauty pageant contestants and the power of friendship
In December 2019 two different moments featuring Nigerian representatives at major beauty competitions drew considerable attention. At the 2019 edition of the Miss Universe competition held in Atlanta, Olutosin Araromi, who placed in the top 20, smiled broadly when Miss South Africa, Zozibini Tunzi was crowned the winner. Araromi gave an enthusiastic thumbs up sign, kissed the newly crowned Miss Universe on the cheek, and encouraged Tunzi to relish her coronation walk. Araromi, who was Tunzi’s roommate at the Miss Universe competition earned the media designation of being her personal “hype queen,” a riff off of the slang term “hype man” used in hip hop music for a backup performer who gets the audience energized and boosts the star’s stage presence. Less than a week later, at the Miss World competition held in London, Miss Nigeria’s Nyekachi Douglas, placed in the top 3, but lost to Miss Jamaica’s Toni-Ann Singh. Internet buzzed about her priceless reaction. Douglas danced, jumped for joy, and whooped animatedly, hugging a shell shocked Singh. Viewers commented on Douglas’ genuine support and kind-hearted reaction as embodying the epitome of a loyal friend.
Promoters and fans view beauty queens as cultural ambassadors. The relationships between beauty queens represent microcosms of diplomatic affairs.
Pageants are often dismissed by the general public as superficial yet they hold significance at the individual, national, and global levels. Araromi and Douglas’ viral moments generated Internet memes, social media commentary, and news coverage. A less charitable interpretation of these moments might conclude that the Nigerian beauty queens held ulterior motives of stealing the limelight. This understanding depends in part on common perceptions of Nigerians as playing an outsized role in Africa as the most populous country and at the forefront of cultural trends in fashion, literature, music, and film. There is a long-standing desire to translate this recognition onto the world stage through events like beauty pageants. Industry insiders view winning and hosting beauty competitions as avenues of promoting hospitality, entrepreneurship, and positive attributes of Nigeria by showcasing charming, attractive, and intelligent young women.
On the whole, responses commended how Araromi and Douglas’ joyous reactions highlighted solidarity, sisterhood, and support despite their personal defeat. These instances belie conventional understandings of beauty queens as catty, hyper-competitive, and self-absorbed. Indeed, in my own book, I write about how beauty contestants often stress the social connections, camaraderie, and life-long friendships that they gain from their participation in beauty competitions. Their involvement in these contests also provided opportunities to network outside of the pageant world. Effectively networking relied on their self-presentation as virtuous and formidable women concerned with the greater good of their communities. They are expected to use their platforms selflessly, to help vulnerable segments of the Nigerian populace through public speaking and charity work. Beauty queens leveraged these forms of civic labor into social capital to catapult their careers and ambitions to the next level. Participating in Nigerian beauty contests provides the chance to enter into the upper echelons of Nigerian society through hobnobbing with celebrities, lobbying politicians, and striking business deals with executives.
Promoters and fans view beauty queens as cultural ambassadors. The relationships between beauty queens represent microcosms of diplomatic affairs. For example, Nigerian news coverage of Tunzi’s win stressed how her friendship with Araromi signaled the future promise of thawing the tense relationship between the two countries, following a recent spate of xenophobic attacks against foreigners in South Africa. Nigerians were common targets of violent assaults, viewed as sources of high unemployment, skyrocketing crime rates, and a strain on public resources like healthcare. The two countries have a long-standing rivalry as they compete for economic prowess and cultural recognition. In 2014, Nigeria officially surpassed South Africa as the largest economy on the African continent, which has further fueled resentment. However, many took the budding bond between Tunzi and Araromi as an indication that as national representatives of their respective countries, South Africa and Nigeria could mend fences and continue to cooperate economically and politically.
These moments of support were all the more important because the newly crowned Miss Universe and Miss World beauty queens were both Black, marking the first time in history in which winners from the major beauty contests, including Miss America and Miss USA were all Black beauty queens. Araromi earned a key to the city of Stonecrest, Georgia in recognition of her position as a role model for young Black women around the world. This celebration of Black beauty on a global stage is rare and echoes Nigeria’s win nearly 20 years ago wherein Agbani Darego was the first Black African to be crowned at the Miss World beauty competition back in 2001. After she won, Darego gushed, “Black is beautiful.” This claim to fame is still referenced in the Nigerian pageant industry today. The Nigerian Postal Service issued a postage stamp paying homage to Darego’s record-breaking win. This image graces the front cover of my book to speak to the connections pageants have to nation-building. Darego’s crowning moment has been referenced as an example of national unity in a country with deep ethnic, religious, and regional divisions. Supporters also view pageantry as a celebratory occasion where others around the world recognized Nigeria in an optimistic light, countering dominant images of the country as anything but beautiful due to perceptions of chaos and corruption.
In the West, pundits and critics often view pageants as passé, yet in Nigeria enthusiasts see it as prestigious. To be sure, not all Nigerians are on board with pageants as constructive for participants or the country at large. The avenues that pageants open up are a gamble with there being some risks to the reputations and finances of contestants. To compete, they often invest considerable time, energy and money into their endeavors with slim chances of winning the crown. People often ask me if pageants should be seen as either sites of empowerment or exploitation. These events are not zero-sum games. While they provide space for recognition, they are also rife with discord. These are the contradictions that spark many of the underlying questions in my book, Beauty Diplomacy ».
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