this post was submitted on 03 Aug 2024
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When law student Chidimma Adetshina clinched a coveted spot as a Miss South Africa finalist, her triumph unleashed a vicious backlash, unearthing a seam of xenophobia that lies close to the surface for some in the country.

The 23-year-old’s name hints at her connection to Nigeria, but internet detectives wanted to know more and combed through every inch of her life. They found that her father is Nigerian and though her mother is South African, her family had come from neighbouring Mozambique.

Ms Adetshina is South African, as verified by the organisers of the pageant. She has said in interviews that she was born in Soweto - the township next to Johannesburg - and grew up in Cape Town.

However, the “go-home” sentiment, and even harsher attacks, flooded social media. There was also a petition demanding her removal from the high-profile televised competition that amassed more than 14,000 signatures before it was taken down.

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[–] PostProcess@lemmy.world 21 points 1 month ago

Jeepers, looking like that, I'd be shoring up her nationality, not questioning it!

[–] Dkarma@lemmy.world 11 points 1 month ago

Can america have her?

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world -1 points 1 month ago (2 children)

You'd think that South Africans, unless we're talking about the white ones here, wouldn't be like this.

[–] notaviking@lemmy.world 15 points 1 month ago (1 children)

White Afrikaner here, we support her fully. She was born here, grew up here, she is South African. Unfortunately due to the piss poor ANC government, since the 2008 with Zuma at the helm, South African employment figures started going down where we have the lowest employment rates in the world, 33% officially, closer to 50% realistically. So they started showing fingers to foreigners taking their jobs, basically a scapegoat to hide behind their failures.

Luckily since the end of May, we now have for the first time a coalition government, no more single party ANC that became complacent after 30 years in government.

Also fuck your comments about us white people here in South Africa. Most of us are truly working hard to better our country, we acknowledge our past and the injustices caused, but we will be vocal about discrimination in all its forms, be it xenophobia or like your racist comments.

[–] AmidFuror@fedia.io 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Right. Only white people have been racist and xenophobic in the whole history of Africa.

It's little known, but the Hutu oppressors in Rwanda who brutalized the Tutsis were very pale skinned.

[–] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago (2 children)

That's not what I was even beginning to suggest. I was suggesting that you would think people who lived under the oppressive thumb of apartheid for decades would be less closed-minded when it came to racism.

[–] moistclump@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yes and no. It takes a lot to unlearn and heal from a system like that. I’m not surprised there’s internalized xenophobia.

[–] AmidFuror@fedia.io 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)

And my point was that people, even in South Africa, don't just learn these things from whites. Xenophobia is a human traits. There are many tribes in South Africa with a history that includes conflict.

Yes, colonizers exploited those conflicts to seize power for themselves, much like they did in North America. But they were feeding off existing discord.

[–] moistclump@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Absolutely. Good point.

[–] notaviking@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Sometimes the oppressed becomes the oppressors, take us whites in South Africa, after being put in concentration camps in the Anglo Boer war, which Nazis took inspiration from, became oppressors afterwards to protect Afrikaner interest. Now we realise the injustice of perpetuating injustices. Israel and Palestine really remind me of being oppressed, claiming to protect your people afterwards but letting other people suffer and becoming an oppressor.