By Suzanne Sprague
DALLAS – (Ambient sound from pageant: "Our next contestant is...from Cameroon" and cheering.)
Suzanne Sprague, KERA 90.1 Reporter: Flashing lights and flashy music greet each Miss Africa USA contestant as she ascends a small stage in an Irving hotel ballroom. These women, mostly recent immigrants to the United States, are competing for a $1500 scholarship. Judges are told to look for poise, confidence and a commitment to African culture. Physical beauty is downplayed.
Irene Mugambi, Miss Africa USA pageant emcee: African beauty is different in that it embraces the whole person, not just your physical appearance. You don't have to be 5'10" with beautiful skin. You could be 5'5" and weigh 150-160 pounds, and that's completely acceptable, as long as you have a wholeness in you; and that's what we're looking for.
Sprague: Dallas attorney Irene Mugambi is one of the emcees for the Miss Africa USA pageant. Before the pageant begins, she and the contestants are taking pictures and having fun in their dressing room (Ambient sound from backstage), but they take this pageant and the idea of African beauty very seriously. Many of the contestants, like Kenya's Christine Munyoki, say American notions of beauty are too often driven by the popular media.
Christine Munyoki, Pageant Contestant: Fortunately, in Africa, we didn't grow up with as much commercialization of models - supermodels - we didn't have a lot of that, so we really didn't grow up with a certain image of what you should look like; but we certainly have been brought up to be proud of what you look like, your own sense of beauty, your individuality.
Sprague: Munyoki is a computer science major at Richland College. She came to Dallas five years ago, when she was 18. And she was surprised to find American women starving themselves to be thin, something she never witnessed in Africa.
Munyoki: Most people weren't wealthy. Most people were middle class or lower, so you have an appreciation for what you eat, because it's not every day that you get to eat a good meal or you get to eat meat. It was good to be healthy. Yeah. It was really good.
Sprague: This interpretation of beauty is currently featured in an exhibit at The Women's Museum. A series of digital photographs projected onto a 30-foot screen pays homage to a range of African-American women, from Josephine Baker to Oprah Winfrey. Jacqueline Bell is the Marketing Director for the Museum.
Jacqueline Bell, Marketing Director, The Women's Museum: African-American beauty is far more difficult to define in a single entity, which is why in this exhibit the evolution and diversity of that is showcased. I believe what you're seeing is that, as we progress in time, that the images are far more self-defined within the community.
Sprague: Meaning that in the late 20th century, African-American women began shedding European ideals of beauty - straightened hair, elaborate clothes - for ones that reflected their cultural heritage, like natural hair or big hoop earrings. Some might say all groups in the U.S. have similarly adjusted their notions of beauty over the last few decades. But women relatively new to American culture, like the contestants (ambient sound from pageant) in the Miss Africa USA pageant, often find the adjustment difficult. Ebere Kalu and Nakku Kiwanuka are originally from Nigeria and Uganda.
Ebere Kalu, Pageant Contestant: When I moved to the United States, everything is about beauty - well, not everything's about beauty, but your physical features are a very important factor in the United States. So, I just had to adjust to it.
Nakku Kiwanuka, Pageant Contestant: You want to keep your roots; like for a time, I actually went with an Afro, but I realize that it kind of shocks the corporate world. I'd be happy to go back to an Afro, if I could. But I can't.
Sprague: Even here, at the pageant that professes an unwavering commitment to inner beauty, the contestants are uneasy.
Kiwanuka: One of the most difficult parts of this whole entire beauty contest - and I've been struggling with it for like the last couple of weeks - is the swimsuit, because as an African woman, you just don't expose yourself that way.
Sprague: But the event's organizer, Sebastiane Lwanga, says African women who live in the United States ought to conform to some American beauty rituals.
Sebastiane Lwanga, Organizer, Miss Africa USA Pageant: We're trying to emulate and pick out some of the good cultures; and to me, I don't see anything wrong with a woman showing the good looks that she has - it's a God-given beauty, and to me it's OK.
Sprague: Nakku Kiwanuka, who was the most apprehensive about the swimsuit competition, ended up winning the Miss Africa USA pageant. The business student from Boston performed a rousing spiritual dance in traditional African clothes which brought the 300-member audience to its feet. Although Kiwanuka's official duties as Miss Africa USA will be few, she hopes her tenure will help spotlight the beauty of her homeland, and not the negative images of poverty and AIDS which she says dominate the American media. Organizers will hold their fourth pageant sometime next year, in hopes of raising more scholarship money and supporting the African immigrant community in the United States. For KERA 90.1, I'm Suzanne Sprague.