Jamaican Beauty Queens and Apartheid

In 1976, the government of Jamaica did not allow for a Miss World Jamaica pageant to be held. As such, on paper, technically there is no Miss Jamaica 1976 winner. However, wearing the sash of Miss Jamaica World, Cindy Breakspeare became the second Jamaican to win the global beauty pageant when she won in 1976. On this episode, we explain how these two things are true. 

Additional Knowledge

BOOKS

  • 491 Days: Prisoner Number 1323/69 by Winnie Madikizela-Mandela

  • Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

  • Hugh Shearer by Hartley Neita

  • I Write What I Like by Steve Biko

  • Michael Manley: The Biography by Godfrey Smith

  • No Fears Expressed: Quotes from Steve Biko by Millard W. Arnold

  • Long Walk to Freedom by Nelson Mandela

  • The Testimony of Steve Biko by Steve Biko

  • The Confounding Island: Jamaica and the Postcolonial Predicament by Orlando Patterson

ACADEMIC PAPERS

  • Glorifying the Jamaican Girl”: The “Ten Types – One People” Beauty Contest, Racialized Femininities, and Jamaican Nationalism by Rochelle Rowe

  • Racial Hierarchy and the Elevation of Brownness in Creole Nationalism by Maziki Thame

ARTICLES

  • DIG: Where Are They Now? Past Miss Jamaica Winners

  • Independent: ‘We’re not Ugly! We’re Not Beautiful! We’re Angry!’ The Feminists Who Flour Bombed the 1970 Miss World Pageant

  • Guardian: ‘I Heard The Signal – And Threw My Flour Bombs’: Why The 1970 Miss World Protest Is Still Making Waves

  • History Extra: Misbehaviour At Miss World: What Happened at the 1970 Beauty Pageant

  • Ron FanFair: Canadian-born Jamaican reflects on Miss World Title and Life with Bob Marley

  • Time: The First Black Miss World Looks Back on Her Tumultuous Win 50 Years Later

DOCUMENTARIES

  • Amandla! A Revolution in Four Part Harmony, (2002), directed by Lee Hirsch

  • Sifuna Okwethu, (2011), directed by Bernadette Atuahene

  • Twelve Disciples of Nelson Mandela, (2005), directed by Thomas Allen Harris

  • Universal Crowns - Miss World 1970: Beauty Queens and Bedlam

  • Witness to Apartheid, (1986), directed by Sharon I. Sopher

  • Voices of Sarafina!, (1998), directed by Nigel Noble

MOVIES

  • A Dry White Season (1989), directed by Euzhan Palcy

  • Sarafina!, (1992), directed by Darrell Roodt

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And The Women Shall Lead Them: Antigua's 1858 Uprising

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The Walter Rodney Riots