Hounded From a Beauty Pageant in South Africa, Then Crowned in Nigeria.

On only her second visit to Nigeria, Chidimma Adetshina won that country’s Miss Universe beauty pageant.

Ms. Adetshina was crowned on Saturday in Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city, just weeks after she was forced to withdraw from the Miss Universe pageant in South Africa, the country of her birth, when public scrutiny of her Nigerian heritage triggered a national debate about nationality, immigration and ultimately xenophobia

“I think I really do embody the spirit of perseverance and resilience,” Ms. Adetshina said on her social media account after her victory, a sash draped on her shoulder, a crown glittering on her head. Later, in an interview with the BBC’s Nigerian Pidgin outlet, her composure collapsed when she was asked about her experiences.

“Only now, it’s starting to cloud me, and affect me,” she said, dabbing tears. Along with her duties as Nigeria’s representative to the Miss Universe pageant, she would seek therapy, she added.

While beauty pageants have long been derided as archaic and out of step with contemporary feminism, they remain popular. If anything, global competitions have become a source of national pride. South Africa crowned a deaf woman for the first time this year, and there has been at least one transgender contestant.

A contestant with Nigerian heritage, though, proved too much for some.

Ms. Adetshina, 23, made it to the finals of the Miss South Africa pageant, a reinvention of the traditional pageant that now resembles a reality television show. That was when her identity overshadowed her beauty. Ms. Adetshina was born in South Africa’s historic Soweto township to a Nigerian father and a South African mother who also has Mozambican ancestry.