Performing Black beauty: the Congolese Community in London

Abstract

Drawing on an ethnographic study of the Miss Congo Beauty Pageant UK 2017, this chapter addresses the ways in which a diasporic form of individual and collective representation of Congolese values and norms are actively re–produced and mediated, and how the young London Congolese use the cultural practice to debate everyday concerns affecting their community and the Black African diasporas at large. The paper demonstrates the significance of performance as a cultural vehicle that facilitates young Congolese to negotiate with their own cultural traditions and the imagination of homeland in the context of postcolonial displacement, and disturbs conservative beliefs perpetuated by African elders, tackling, and advancing controversial disputes regarding Black African women’s rights, gender equality and socio–cultural stigmas. Additionally, the pageant disseminates notions of Black beauty and the ‘natural’ body, offering an Afro–diasporic alternative to the cultural representation of beauty dominated by Euro–Western aesthetic discourse. In conclusion, the Miss Congo UK becomes a meaningful site where ‘new’ racial, ethnic and gender identities are bodily articulated and the configuration of a forward–thinking mentality characterising the younger Congolese community in London is displayed.