“D-Day for Beauty Queens”: Beauty Pageants and Nation-Building in Western Cameroon, 1960–82

Though women were nearly invisible in public governance, Ahmadou Ahidjo, the first president of the Federal Republic of Cameroon, viewed them as important symbols of the new nation in their roles as wives, mothers, and daughters. As symbols of the nation, their duties were deemed to be politically important in helping to establish and maintain a sense of national unity. Consequently, Cameroonian women were perceived as being the main vehicles for forging national unity and identity. My research examines the ways in which women’s beauty pageants were uniquely used as platforms to showcase national identity and unity in the early post-colonial years of Cameroon. More specifically, I contend that in the 1960s and 1970s, beauty competitions in West Cameroon were used to achieve collective unity and identity—an identity that would physically portray women as being proper and patriotic citizens. By examining the political significance - and complex ramifications - of beauty pageants, we can learn how women’s bodies (and its adornments) contributed to the construction (and ideologies) of the new nation.

            I will use illustrative materials from published public discourse as historical sources in my poster presentation.  My presentation will showcase newspaper advertisements and images of beauty contestants. For example, newspapers published advertisements that encouraged women to beautify themselves and participate in pageants. Those who could not enter competitions (e.g. men) were told to participate in other ways, such as being in attendance and thereby supporting the nation. I will also emphasize images of contestants wearing traditional Cameroonian clothing. This is important because the state encouraged women to be modern, but to also treasure their traditional culture.

            Additionally, I will include excerpts of opinion columns that underline the many controversies over beauty contestants and the outcomes of the pageants. For instance, one winner was criticized because she was from a rural area and not a “modern” urban girl. Such debates show that West Cameroonians wanted women to present themselves as being “modern”—a portrayal deemed important to the nascent state and its citizens. It is very evident that beauty pageants were not perceived as just being part of an exclusive part of the Cameroonian sector—it was a politicized tool used to build the nation, via women's bodies.