Introduction

It could be, of course, that there was something more than mere physical appearance behind this.

Alexander McCall Smith, Morality for Beautiful Girls (2002: 114)

Real Women, Real Lives, Real Language

'Will you be my sponsor?' With the solemnity of a priest, a beauty contestant uttered these words to me as she followed me home after my first visit to watch a pageant rehearsal. She sought money to re-enroll in secondary school, explaining that her small earnings from winning a lower-level pageant went to her family and that she still needed money to pay for delinquent school fees. Though certainly not my first encounter with structural inequality, it was the first time I really considered how these pageants could be about far more than the language ideologies I had initially set out to study. This contestant's request made clear to me several things: that she was struggling with some hard realities; that she saw pageants as a way to better her life; that education seemed to be an answer to her troubles; and that she believed by looking at me that I had more than she did. Furthermore, her use of English with me was significant. Even though earlier she had only heard me speak Swahili as I introduced myself to the group and chatted with the pageant director, her choice of language clued me into a way of reckoning links between language value and personhood that extended beyond the strictly local setting of my study.

This book is as much about lives as it is about pageants. In particular, it is about average Tanzanians, mostly young women, living in cities, getting by but often just barely. Many reside with their families, some live on their own or with friends, and sustenance is almost always a collective effort. These women, though living in what for many people is an isolated corner of the world, consider themselves part of the world, interacting with products, ideas and ways of being in wide global circulation. In many cases, they live rather local lives, in the sense that they may infrequently leave their own neighborhood or city, let alone their own region or country, and may only rarely interact with people from far away. Yet, in pageants, they expertly mix second-hand clothing from the United States with inexpensive items from China or India into fashion-forward outfits; they are as likely to perform dance numbers to local Bongo Flava hip-hop music, or to South African pop diva Brenda Fassie, as to Beyonce. They speak on stage about subjects such as HIV/AIDS which bridge local, regional and global concerns. Their language use in the competition is likewise reflective of their locality as well as of their place as citizens of the world.

In Tanzania, beauty pageants are wildly popular, with minute details of the contests and their participants appearing frequently in newspapers and other media. And while the media and individuals frequently condemn contestants, especially claiming their utovu wa nidhamu ('lack of good behavior') pageants remain a popular spectator sport, and contestants and winners often become, at least ephemerally national celebrities. Nonetheless, finding qualified and willing contestants sometimes proves difficult. Newspaper advertisements appear during the weeks leading up to the preliminary pageants encouraging young women to submit applications, luring them with the promise of cash and other prizes; however, often this is not enough. Local pageant directors actively recruit girls, by going to their schools, and especially their homes, where parental resistance can be strong. In one case, a pageant director, herself a former Miss Tanzania and now a wife, mother and career woman, said she used her status and accomplishments to present herself to parents as a role model for their daughters. A confident, successful and articulate woman, yet one who embraces motherhood and her role as a wife, she sells pageants as a stepping stone to a prosperous, modern Tanzanian life.

In this way, the director emphasizes another part of the perceived experience of beauty queens – their ability to escape from life-as-usual in Tanzania. Young women who participate do so in part as a way to engage in an aesthetic cosmopolitanism, as well as in hopes of winning prizes, scholarships and money. In addition, many become involved for the opportunity to get out – of their town, of their lifestyle, of poverty or, even, of Tanzania. Newspapers remind their readers of the glamorous lives of former national beauty queens. Reports laud the successes of Miss Tanzania 1967, living in Germany, Miss Tanzania 1996, residing in Italy, and Miss Tanzania 1999, who pursued a degree in the United States. Others have achieved fame and fortune outside of their title as national beauty queen, such as Miss Tanzania 2000, Jacqueline Ntuyabaliwe, who became an East African pop music star performing under the name K-Lyinn. These stories help contestants imagine possibilities in their own lives that might arise out of competing in pageants. While many young women participate in pageants for fun, they also see them as one of their few means of escape, a route to a dream of securing an education and their independence, often perceived as possible only elsewhere.

So, despite the manifold ways in which young urban Tanzanian women tap into and integrate a wide array of locally sourced and international resources for aesthetic, practical and identity-making purposes, they are nonetheless sensitive to their particular place on the global periphery. Many hold ambitions of leaving where they are, for a bigger regional city, for the capital city, Dar es Salaam, for neighboring Kenya, for South Africa, for Dubai, for London or for the United States – anywhere where opportunity is seen as greater than where they are at the moment (which is almost everywhere). They seek independent, stylish and modern lives, away from paternal or conjugal authority, and English is often understood as a critical tool in fashioning their own, mobile, futures. Beauty pageants offer both an opportunity to engage in the aesthetics of globalization and a glimmer of hope for a new, prosperous and independent life.

When I first began studying language use in beauty pageants, years ago as part of my dissertation research, I was impressed by the fact that everyone at these events seemed to be having a lot of fun. Full of music, dance, fashion and humor, Tanzanian beauty pageants are truly a great time for everyone involved. Yet, as I continued researching them and maintained contact with my consultants and friends from my fieldwork, I started to recognize the...