OPINION… Africa’s Dirty Little Secret: A crown, A courtroom, and a broken heart -the Chidimma Adetshina tragedy
Imagine being born in a Soweto hospital. Your mother holds you. The state gives you an identity number. You grow up playing in Johannesburg’s streets. You go to school. You learn isiZulu and English. You believe with every fibre of your being that South Africa is your home. Now imagine that twenty-three years later, the […] The post OPINION… Africa’s Dirty Little Secret: A crown, A courtroom, and…
Chidimma Adetshina, a law student born in Soweto in 2001, has faced an uphill battle regarding her South African citizenship. She has a Nigerian father and a Mozambican-born mother who became a South African citizen. Despite growing up in South Africa, Chidimma has never known any other home. When she was announced as a finalist for Miss South Africa in 2024, her identity became a subject of intense scrutiny, with critics questioning her "South African-ness" and accusing her of stealing opportunities from "real" South African women.
Politicians joined the fray, launching an investigation into Chidimma's mother, accusing her of fraud for giving birth to a Nigerian child in South Africa. Even though the government acknowledged that Chidimma was an infant at the time of her mother's actions, the state still decided to punish her by taking away her identity and passport, effectively barring her from her own country.
Nigeria welcomed Chidimma, and she went on to compete for Miss Universe Nigeria and even finished as the first runner-up in the Miss Universe competition in Mexico. However, in 2025, South Africa stripped Chidimma and her mother of their citizenship, declaring Chidimma a "prohibited person" and arresting her upon her attempt to return to the country.
The case has raised concerns about xenophobia and the treatment of South Africans with non-African heritage, highlighting the country's hypocrisy and lack of empathy towards its citizens.
Written by urgent.news from Ripples Nigeria's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
