Princess Dinubolu of Senegal hit the headlines in 1908 for entering a beauty pageant in Southend-on-Sea. It was controversial for a Black woman to be part of such a competition and she got as far as the second round at the Kursaal amusement park in Essex. But mystery swirls around this maverick historical figure. Who was she, what did she look like and where did she go?
Anne Odeke’s show – a combination of theatre, standup and lecture – gives us an imaginary riff on this little-known Senegalese princess. Odeke reconceives her not as royalty but as a local Black British woman called Joanna who enters the competition in disguise.
