Belgium elected its second black miss Belgium. The first was Tatiana Silva, Miss Belgium 2005, who was of Cape Verdean origin. This time its Laura Beyne, a 19 year old girl from Brussels. Her father is Belgian, her mother Congolese. She is perfectly bilingual and thus represents both major linguistic communities of Belgium.
Since 2000 several women of African origin were elected miss in their respective countries. They are nearly all mixed race. Below I will list the ones I know about.
Former Misses of African origin in other European Countries
France
Sonia Rolland, Born on the 11th of February in Kigali, Rwanda, she is a French actress. She was elected Miss France in the year 2000. Her father is French, her mother Rwandan. 
Chloé Mortaud (September 19, 1989, born in Lisieux, Calvados) is a French beauty pageant contestant who won Miss France 2009. She represented the Albigeois-Midi-Pyrénées, a southwest region of France, and became the first winner of the Miss France beauty pageant to have dual citizenship, French and American. Mortaud received US citizenship through her mother, an African American who emigrated from Mississippi to France, and has a grandmother who lives in Los Angeles. Her father is French.
Switzerland
Whitney Toyloy (21. Juli 1990 in Zürich) would not always be perceived as black. She is Miss Switzerland 2009 and has a Multi-racial background (her ancestors trace their roots from the United States, China, Panama and Switzerland). I think her father is mixed race African-American and the mother white Swiss. She could pass for black, Latina, white, Arabic, Jewish, South Asian, …
Sweden
Malou Hansson, (born in 1983 in Järfälla, Uppland, Sweden) served as Miss Sweden in 2002. She was the first black woman to hold this beauty pageant title. 
England
Although England has a large black community I only know of one Miss England ever, not only very recently but her story has a rather bad ending. Rachel Christie (born c. 1988) is a British beauty pageant contestant and athlete who was briefly Miss England 2009, and the first black mixed race woman to hold the title. Unfortunately in the early hours of 2 November 2009, Christie was arrested on suspicion of assaulting Miss Manchester Sara Beverley Jones at a Manchester nightclub. She subsequently announced her withdrawal from the Miss World competition and relinquished her Miss England crown. The crown was passed on to the runner-up in the 2009 pageant, Katrina Hodge. 
Norway
Iman Kerigo, crowned Miss Norway in 2011. She was born in Kenia, raised in Norway.
The Netherlands
Just as Witney Toyloy, Sonja Silva (Rotterdam, 1 februari 1977) has a very international and multiracial appearance. I don’t know what her roots are but as far as I know she is the only Miss Netherlands who has somehow Afro roots. Her name sounds Portuguese and I thus think she may have Cape Verdean roots. 
More information on these beauty pageants or other European misses of African descent is more than welcome.
Sonia Rolland is often represented as first black or mixed race Miss France. Personnally I think she is the most beautiful all time Miss France ever BUT she is not the first one ! Veronique de la Cruz from Guadeloupe was elected Miss Franc ein 1993. Also you have Corinne Coman, Miss France 2003, also from Guadeloupe. Sandra Bisson from Guadeloupe again was first pageant of Miss France 2002. And not to forget, Veronique Caloc, from Martinique who was first pageant to Miss France 1998 and first pageant to MISS WORLD 1998 !
ReplyDeleteWow! Thanks for the info Zerka. I enjoy learning this.
DeleteThanks for the extra info ZERKA!
ReplyDeleteCongratulation Sibo! As for The Netherlands, the first (1996) black (Surinamese)/biracial Miss Holland is Petra Hoost and the second (1997) is Tonja Silva (Dutch/Cape Verdean) .
ReplyDeleteThere was also a Miss Nederland (2000) who was born to Moroccan parents, her name is Raja Moussaoui.
Hello. This year, Belgium featured three women who are mixed Black/White (of course, Laura Beyne, Virginie Philippot and Ons Detaille). Those were the three I was looking at to win. I watched the event live via streaming media and When it came down to the final contestants, I was just waiting for the announcer to say "Laura" and she did! I was very happy Laura won and I even defended her as being a true Belgian when some people online stated she is not a true Belgian or stated she did not deserve to win. She deserved the Crown 100% and I believe she will do a fine job as Miss Belgium 2012.
ReplyDeleteBy the way, this year's Miss Switzerland, Alina Buchschacher, is mixed - her father is Swiss and her mother is from Trinidad And Tobago. Very nice. I believe she will do a fine job as Miss Switzerland 2012 too.
I am waiting for the day Miss Germany will be Black or mixed Black/White. One of these days it will happen.
Also, it is funny how in places like Ghana and South Africa, if a woman is mixed, people complain that she is "White" and should not be representing the country.
Nice post. I have to add one beautiful lady to this list. Miss Finland 1996 Lola Odusoga (born 1977) and she was also placed third in miss universum competition in Las Vegas!
ReplyDeleteHer dad is Nigerian and mother is Finnish. She is very famous in her own country (Finland) and so far the only biracial winner of african descent in Finland.
I had forgotten Cindy Fabre as Miss France 2005 ! Her mother is from ...Guadeloupe! :))
ReplyDeleteGuadeloupe is like Venezuela, a real industry for beauty pageants...
I'm not seeing it.
ReplyDeleteI'm still waiting to see a BLACK miss.
Now, I get that it's a step forwards, that it are no longer 'Miss White' contests, but I don't think we ought to compromise on the FULL acceptance of "Blackness" or allow the majority to get away with recalibrating it to their tastes:
"White, Mulatto, Black" are becoming treated as "White, Black, TOO Black" respectively, and -voila- everyone is comfortable around a "Black" appearance! "End of racism."
Thanks for publishing this list. I confess that I wasn't aware of any of these winners. Congratulations to Miss Belgium 2012, and congratulations to the other winners who you listed and other commentaters added!
ReplyDeleteBazompora, I disagree with your comment and the opinion of others who believe that a person must have no racial mixture at all if she or he is to be considered Black.
Many African Americans are racially mixed. Are we not Black if we aren't dark skinned? Of course, some people who are first generation racailly mixed are dark skinned. Would they be considered "Black" according to your definition?
Your comment sounds too much like those Black people and those non-Black people in the United States and elsewhere who said that USA President Barack Obama wasn't Black because his mother was White. To that I say Hogwash!
They are right though, here in Brazil we classify anyone who have a black or mixed-race father, and a white or mixed-race mother (or vice and versa) as mixed-race, not as black. It's not a matter of denying your ancestry but accept that you have two ancestries combined.
DeleteA thing that America and it's racist cultural policy of the one drop rule never adopted, hence why most afro-americans define themselves as black and not as mixed-race. Obama is not black, he's mixed-race, yet he's still an afro-american, just like an irish american as well. That doesn't make him less representative of the afro-american community in any way, because afro-american does not mean black people only but everybody with african ancestry with them.
Gabriel, I agree with you about the one drop rule. In light of that, how than would you classify Obama's Children Gabriel, as Black or mixed race since Obama is of mixed race? I think it gets rather complicated when one mixed race person, has a child with a Black person.
DeleteMiss Italy 1996 is dominican-born. I don't know if she fits the list, but here she is!
ReplyDeletehttp://static.blogo.it/tvblog/le-miss-italia-vincitrici-del-passato/1996.jpg
azizi,
ReplyDeleteHogwash you say, indeed:
you strawman the argument
- about the problematic practice of substituting 'dark skin, pigmented palms & kinky hair' (the signature characteristics that conflict with Eurocentric aesthetic ideals) with 'light-skinned, straight-nosed & non-kinky' (basically, -atleast- as much a White person with Black features as the inverse!), as the archetype of 'Blackness' (which I "define" as WHITEWASH, unless associated with being the -primary- target of the Western hatred for bearing the authentic tropical-African features!) -
by a hang-up about "no racial mixture at all".
I am what you call "first generation racially mixed" (East-African/West-European), but apparently I look "Arab" ('Berber' is meant here), which is substantially less subject to the Western repulsion for exotic traits; can you -honestly- say that "Black" genuinely applies to those who 'live through less than' the treatment of 'being Black'?
Wow what a nice and lovely post.Perhaps beauty is God gifted.I love it.
ReplyDeleteThanks for more sharing........
" private equity china "
Bazompora, you asked me "can you -honestly- say that "Black" genuinely applies to those who 'live through less than' the treatment of 'being Black'?"
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure that I understand your question, and I don't want to debate this topic, particularly on what I consider to be an upbeat, positive thread. And I'm not going to play oppression politics. But I will note that the historical & present day examples of light skinned African Americans are numerous. And in United States where I'm from and where I live, the social definition of who is or isn't Black is the "one drop of Black blood" rule. So, while visual clues such as skin color and hair texture do factor greatly as to who is considered Black, African Americans range from "light, bright to damn near white to blue black" in skin color (as the saying goes and as my experiences and reading have confirmed).
Some Black Americans who are light skinned (because of first generational racial mixture or otherwise) may encounter colorism from non-Black folks and may also be "perpetrators" of colorism from and toward brown skinned and black skinned African Americans.
That's all I'll say on this subject.
Peace!
azizi,
ReplyDeleteeven if rhetorical, I must pose in response:
by going along in the established "social definition", you find yourself needlessly struggling to detangle the offshoots of White supremacism. What is "colorism", if not outright racism, stemming from White supremacism?
And aren't you, by separating "light-on-dark" discrimination from the term 'racism', ultimately paying lip-service to White-on-Black racism, by presenting 'Mixed-on-Black racism' within the implicitly White-supremacist Western culture as "Black-on-Black colorism" - a "Black pathology" thus?
Good response Azizi. Don't play bazompora's game.
ReplyDeleteHe can "look Arab" all he wants. But he will be treated like a n!gger here in America.
or he will be treated like a monkey by self-hater like you thruth2011!
ReplyDelete"m black. I was born in and still reside in the US. Black pathology? Interesting. Pathology suggests disease or ailment. We are bombarded by race and class issues daily. No matter that our President is a black man. The level of antics used regularly to discredit him and his family are insane. The media, goes out of its way to disrespect this man and his family. No matter that his mother was white. All the women posted here ARE black women. MY family consists of women who are the whitest "looking" of black women, to women who look born native of Africa. My next statement is said with the utmost love.....WE ARE SUBJECT TO HATRED REGARDLESS OF WHETHER WE HAVE BEEN BEATEN AND MAIMED, OR HAVE NEVER EXPERIENCED THE STRUGGLE OF OUR ANCESTORS!!! Bazampora, what foolishness are you speaking of. You have to be hung, shot, beaten, raped, or degraded in some way to be considered black? Are you out of your mind. PLease, I beg you, read something. Research something. Your concepts are skewed.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, Truth2011 has used the word 'monkey' in a comment, but he has also removed the comment. So let’s consider the matter done.
ReplyDeletetruth2011,
ReplyDeleteyour username strikes me as familiar; what did I do to you, for you to vitriolically add "all he wants" to what was no more than the description of the other's observation?
Ms. Metafly,
you are not responding to "my concepts"; I urge you to more carefully read through all 3 of my comments above. I was sure I made clear that I consider 'Black' as the collection of exotic traits that are received as offensive to the acquired tastes in a traditionally Black-hating Western cultural block: if you only have half of what it takes to attract the level of racism that people "who look born native of Africa" receive, then you are only half-Black in my book.
All 'dark' minorities are subject to hatred (did I ever say otherwise?), but the "classic Black" woman, with kinky hair and strong pigmentation, is still the -only- one not to see the stage, in a decade with misses "of colour";
what good can come from pretending to be blind to the bias that underlies these stratified orders of racial exclusion?
And since that presidential example keeps being brought up: are you telling me that the thought "Was many a White vote for Obama actually a vote for a sufficiently White man?" doesn't occur?
I agree with Ms. Metafly. You go girl ;)
ReplyDeleteSo now Thruth2011 needs a lawyer to defend his views? People here need to who he really is. This is why I remind the fact that he called this black guy a monkey.He doesn't believe in all the sh*t he says about black proud. I can't stand two-faced people.
ReplyDeleteNow what do your big mouth have to say Thruth2011?
Monkey means clown in Black English Vernacular which is why Black Americans didn't take offense to what I said. Not one Black American took offense at what I was saying.
ReplyDeleteI know who I am.
And who is Thruth2011? This is probably Sanza. I can recognize her writing from far away.
Complex issue
ReplyDeleteFrom Bob Marley and Jimi Hendrix till Lenny Kravitz
From Josephine Baker till Alicia Keys, Halle Berry and Beyoncé
Just to name a few
Blacks with a mixed race appearance are overrepresented on the public arena as blacks.
Why? That's a subject for further research.
However, it strikes me over and over again how black women in films always have lighter skin than their male partners. Ever seen a movie with a black couple, he being light skinned and she being darker?
truth2011 said...
ReplyDeleteI know who I am.
And who is Thruth2011? This is probably Sanza. I can recognize her writing from far away.
- Split personality? Who the f*ck are you dayum!
Monkey is a worldwide classic RACIST depiction of black people. We all know it.
Check out these video and pics about President Obama and how black people take it :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ACTasKoOvVE
http://www.theawl.com/2011/04/primate-in-chief-a-guide-to-racist-obama-monkey-photoshops
Pleeaaase don't come and say your bullsh*t again. Yo so stupid
You're probably African. You don't know black American "talk." Monkey means clown to black Americans. I could have used the word "monkey" or "clown" and people would have known what I meant.
ReplyDeleteYou're not a black American. You don't know what I meant.
Why didn't black Americans take offense at what I said if I meant the animal when I said "monkey"?
Truth2011, black American "talk"!? There is a difference between saying you act like a monkey and saying you are monkey. I can't believe calling a black person a monkey has anything to do with African American Vernacular. But if so, please remember that there are many visitors here who are not from the US.
ReplyDeleteAnd by the way, black Americans didn't take offense because you removed the comment.
Even after I removed it, there weren't any comments about it. I realized that some wouldn't understand the context of it, so I took it out.
ReplyDeleteI didn't mean monkey the animal. I meant monkey as in "clown."
There's Jamaican Patois and there's Black English Vernacular (also called BEV). I don't pretend to understand Jamaican Patois or the meaning of the words, even though it's technically English. I think people who aren't black Americans should do the same.
You should hear the technically racist comments black Americans say about Herman Cain, a guy running against President Obama. Do I think the black Americans calling him all types of racist names are themselves racist? No! I know they're frustrated and aren't using it in a racist, self-loathing fashion.
Ask black Americans if they've ever been called "sambo," "heatehen," or any other technically racist word by a grandparent. I have.
I know who I am. I don't need to see a mirror to know what race I am. I called that fool in France that word because he's a refugee in a racist European country yet he thinks he can attack black Americans when he himself is not supposed to be in that country. That's a clown to me (or the "M word").
And I called that clown out for making a comedy about slavery, when he isn't a descendant of slavery and is from a country that has 95% poverty.
Truch2011, who in France are you referring to? I have never heard the M word refer to someone as meaning a clown. I have to disagree with you that Jamaican Patois is now English, but Patois, just like Yiddish is not Hebrew, but it is associated to it.
DeletePatois is Patois and Jamaican Patois is a form of Patois which is a language of slaves or freed Blacks who were initially brought to the Caribbean to serve as slaves.
Truth2011, thanks for the explanation.
ReplyDeleteI love this blog!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It's great!!!!!!! I'm so curious about AfroEurope!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDelete*Living in Spain*
Now THIS is racist. This is a black American web site talking about Seal and Heidi Klum's divorce. They're calling him a monkey, ape, and saying that he "needs to go back to the jungle."
ReplyDeleteThat's racist. They're calling him the animal.
http://cdn.mediatakeout.com/53719/breaking-news-heidi-klum-and-seal-are-divorcing.html
Truth, I read the comments. That’s racist ignorance.
ReplyDeleteThis is an excellent post. Thanks, I love beauty pagents.
ReplyDeleteShe isn't Black, just saying. Also do you think that a black person with kinky hair(no extensions, weave) etc will ever be crowned Miss Belgium etc?
ReplyDeleteMiss Finland 2012 is also black.
ReplyDeleteDo not forget the beautiful Miss Italy 1997 Denny Mendez - a black italian of Caribbean descent (Dominican Republic) - one of the first Afroeuropean Misses..and one whose election was very controversial because Italian racists alleged that she didnt "represent the typical Italian beauty"...they were proved wrong by history, because Italy - to their dismay - is now home to a sizeable black italian population...http://www.online-news.it/2011/10/12/denny-mendez-in-dolce-attesa-%C2%AB-il-nome-evochera-un-personaggio-storico%C2%BB/
ReplyDeleteI take a dump every day that lookes better than that.
ReplyDeleteWhy is it that Europeans are open-minded, accepting Miss World candidates with non-European heritage, while Fiji insists that a mixed-race girl with European ancestry is "not Fijian enough"?
ReplyDeleteI like this post. I am waiting for the day those countries embrace "full" Black winners (i.e., non-mixed race African women). There are plenty of non-mixed Black women in those countries and they deserve such recognition as well.
ReplyDeleteall of these ladies are very beautiful. good to see a site dedicated to other people across the world other than just American people (i am american btw).
ReplyDelete