Miss Angola, Leila Lopes, was crowned Miss Universe over the weekend. One of the judges, a former American TV newsreader, Connie Chung, told the AP:”… You have to keep in mind that these women are not objects just to be looked at. They’re to be taken seriously.” Yeh.
Meanwhile, here‘s what some other young Angolans–who are not competing in beauty competitions–are up to.
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In an incisive piece by the young Lisbon-based Angolan musician, Aline Franao, published in Portuguese http://club-k.net/opiniao/8796-angolanas-que-nos-enchem-de-orgulho-ermelinda-freitas-ou-leila-lopes-aline-frazao-.html, she makes precisely this point. She asks why we are celebrating the objectification of Angolan women (in beauty competitions funded largely by the first lady) and not celebrating the acts of women standing up for the rights of citizenship…in particular, women like Ermelinda Freitas, a 60 year old woman and member of the small political party Bloco Democratico (Democratic Block) who was involved in the protests and also jailed. The court, whose judge is still a law student, absolved Ms. Freitas and few others but the rest of the protestors were sentenced to two-3 month prison terms and the court refused to entertain that fines replace jail time, underscoring the politics at stake.
must it be one over the other? why not both?
Black is indeed beautiful
Then there’s this: this Nigerian father disagrees with me.
Yes, why can’t we have both. I’m an African woman, I don’t celebrate it but I do take note of it. Somewhere on the same continent there are a bunch of young girls who may see affirmation in the beauty of Lopes. Who just might think of themselves as less ugly, more accepted because an African woman won an international beauty contest. I can’t deny them that. The issue of African beauty and its place and acceptance in the world is an issue of many ugly shades. That is also something that we struggle with.