By Uche Ezechukwu
I was billed to officiate at a beauty
pageant-cum award giving ceremony, last Friday at Owerri, as keynote speaker. I
had written what I considered a good speech and had got an expert to translate
it into Igbo, as the entire proceedings at the Asa Igbo pageant would be
in Igbo language. It was that refreshing departure from the norm, as well as
the assurance by the organizers that it was not going to be like the run-of the
mill pageants, about which I had since become suspicious, that had made me to
agree to participate fully.
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| *Chidinma Okeke |
I did not only agree to participate but had
also made this newspaper, whose editorial board I chair, to throw its weight
behind the planning and execution of the event with publicity. We had publicized
and popularized the event as professionally as we could. We were convinced that
we were supporting a good course, because the Asa Igbo pageant would be
an occasion to glorify and promote Igbo language, values and culture.
The paper I prepared was directed at that noble theme. I had since started
frowning at the promotion of female cleavages and nudity as signifying beauty.
Hence, in the eyes of the different organizers of beauty pageants in the West
and which has been copied line, hook and sinker by Nigerian organizers like Ben
Bruce and co., the most beautiful maidens are those that flaunt their feminine
attributes best and most alluringly before male audiences and judges and most
audaciously. As a typical African, this definition of ‘beauty’ appears very
defective to me, because in our African milieu, the beauty of a woman,
especially the nubile female, is defined more by inside, unseen values than by
the outward attributes which can be cosmetically achieved.
In the other words, many of the Miss This; Miss That which most of
our beauty pageants have been turning out might, in fact, be painted sepulchers
with stinking inside attributes, which to the ordinary African, does not
constitute the beauty of a woman.
The organizers of the Asa Igbo pageant had assured us that
they had the same lofty objectives as I was espousing when I first discussed
with Mike Akabueze, the president of the Asa Igbo Foundation, as a condition
for agreeing to the partnership with The Authority. They had assured me
that their beauty queen would be one that could stand out any day as the
ambassador of Igbo beauty as defined by Igbo culture and philosophy. I was
completely bought over and made up my mind to deliver a paper that would add
some colour to the event. The title of my paper was: The Woman as the Glory of Her Society, which I would have delivered
in Igbo as: Nwanyi bu Ugo Mba.
