Canadian resident Jennifer Hosten was first woman of colour to win Miss World 50 years ago
October 13, 2020
Be ready to act when opportunity knocks as there’s always the potential for great things.
As a flight attendant with the defunct British West Indies Airways (BWIA) 50 years ago, Jennifer Hosten consented to take a photo with recently crowned Miss Guyana, Jennifer Evan Wong, who was on her way to New York to shop for the upcoming Miss World contest.
During a brief chat before the aircraft touched down in Trinidad, Evan Wong learnt that Hosten was from Grenada and asked who their Miss World representative was that year.
“When I told her I didn’t think they were sending anyone, her response was, ‘They should send you’,” she recalled.
As the flight crew was tidying up the cabin, Hosten saw a copy of ‘The Grenada Voice’ and put it in her bag. Opening the paper a few hours later, a front page story announcing Grenada would be sending a representative to Miss World for the first time caught her eye.
Two days later, the photo of Hosten and Evan Wong, who died suddenly in France in 2005 at age 53 and whose ashes are interred in a cemetery in Ottawa where family members reside, made headlines in the Caribbean with the caption, ‘Miss Guyana seen with attractive BWIA stewardess Jennifer Hosten on flight to Trinidad’.
While in Grenada for Easter two weeks later, Gary Protain – he was helping his late mom Gertrude Protain organize the first ever Miss Grenada pageant that year – asked Hosten if she would be interested in becoming a participant.
After giving it some thought, she agreed and went on to become the first Miss Grenada and the second Caribbean woman to win Miss World a few months later in November 1970.
The beaming 1970 Miss World Jennifer Hosten with Irith Lavi (Miss Israel) at left, Jillian Jessop (Miss South Africa), Pearl Jensen (Miss Africa South) & Maj Christel Johansson (Miss Sweden)
Protain was among a few dozen Grenadians at the Royal Albert Hall that evening to see Hosten make history as the first woman of colour to win the title.
“It was such a marvelous evening for the Spice Island,” he said. “We were in the cheap seats up in the highest reaches of the hall which is referred to as the ‘gods’ and we felt so excited because this had never happened before. I will never forget that evening.”
There were 58 contestants that year.
“Jennifer stood out because she is intelligent, very articulate, she was prepared that night and her gown was simply amazing,” added Protain who lived in Toronto and was a Public Relations Manager with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) for nearly two decades and entertained Carnival Cruise Line guests with piano music for three years before re-locating to Illinois in 1998.
The 1970 Miss World pageant was marred by protests inside and outside the Royal Albert Hall (BBC)
The 1970 contest was marred by controversy following the organizers decision to allow two entries from South Africa – one Black (Pearl Janssen was the runner-up) and the other White – and protests by women liberation activists who threw paper, flour bombs and rotten fruit at co-host Bob Hope who was forced to dash off the stage.
To mark the golden anniversary this year, a movie and Hosten’s autobiography were released.
Jennifer Hosten’s autobiography was launched to coincide with the release of the movie
‘Misbehaviour’ is a comedy drama recounting the story of the women liberators who disrupted the pageant.
British actress Gugu Mbatha-Raw plays Hosten in the movie that was written, produced and directed by women.
“Talking with Jennifer, wise and well-travelled, opened my mind,” the actress said in the book’s foreword. “The thing that struck me most was that at the time, she saw the competition as an opportunity and a stepping stone to a bigger life. What I learned to appreciate is that in that period, Grenada still did not have its independence from Britain and 1970, the first year that Grenada had entered the competition, was a chance to put her small island on the map…Before Beyonce, before Rhianna, before Zendaya, there was Jennifer Hosten, a true trailblazer, an icon to inspire the next generation to know that they are seen and valued on the world stage.”
Marietta Steinam asked Jennifer Hosten if she could hold her scepter the morning after the pageant in Grovesnor Square
While downsizing two years ago, Hosten found her Miss World journal that she used to document her journey.
“It occurred to me that since I was going to make a movie and I wasn’t entirely sure how I would be portrayed, I decided it was important to tell my story,” the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC)-trained broadcaster said. “It took me 10 months to produce a manuscript that I submitted to a literary agent who found a publisher that thought the story was really interesting. This was done in collaboration with the film company who endorsed the story which is why the book cover and the movie poster are the same.”
Hosten saw the movie for the first time in 2019 at a special screening during the Toronto International Film Festival and again last January with her family.
Jennifer Hosten (l) & Gugu Mbatha-Raw
Mbatha-Raw, she said, accurately portrayed her in the film.
They met in Grenada for the first time two years ago.
“I realized that she really was going to play my part as sensitively as was possible,” said Hosten. “During filming at a theatre in Wimbledon in October 2018, I saw her on stage with the make-up and hair and everything and she looked so much like me. She played the part so well and she even imitated my accent. It brought tears to my eyes.”
A few weeks after being crowned, Hosten joined Hope on his annual tour to overseas American bases and made numerous appearances around the world before moving to Canada in 1973 and joining Air Canada.
Jennifer Hosten joined Bob Hope for his annual Christmas tour
Five years later, she accepted Eric Gairy’s offer to become the island’s top diplomat in Canada. Grenada’s first Prime Minister was a judge at the Miss World contest.
While in New York in March 1983 to meet Gairy to discuss a salary increase for her Ottawa staff, the Maurice Bishop-led New Jewel Movement party overthrew the ruling Grenada United Labour Party, replacing it with the People’s Revolutionary Government.
In the midst of the turmoil and uncertainty, Hosten had to reassure the Canadian government that it was ‘business as usual’ under the new government that Canada later recognized before the October revolt later that year in which Bishop and several of his Cabinet ministers were executed.
Jennifer Hosten was the second Caribbean woman to win the Miss World crown (Getty)
She relished the opportunity to serve her country and fondly recalled her encounters with late Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.
“Though he came across as a shy person, he was very charismatic,” Hosten said. “He charmed people by just sitting and talking with them.”
After the coup, she invited Trudeau to an autumn barbecue she hosted for Caribbean diplomats at her then farm home near Ottawa.
“He came and thoroughly enjoyed himself,” said Hosten. “He sat with my mother-in-law on the couch chatting and when my two children (Beau and Sophia) came out in their pyjamas to say good night, he put my daughter in his lap and asked her what book (she had in her hands) she was reading. She said Dr. Seuss’ ‘Green Eggs & Ham’ and he told her it was one of the favourite books of his son Michel (he died in an avalanche in 1998).”
The gold dress was Jennifer Hosten’s secret weapon (BBC)
Demitting the High Commissioner office in the mid-1980s, Hosten worked part-time with Air Canada while completing undergraduate and graduate degrees at Ottawa University and Carleton University respectively.
Her Master’s thesis, ‘The Effect of a North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) on the Commonwealth Caribbean’, was published in hardcover in 1992.
After managing a federal anti-racism campaign for three years, Hosted joined the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), working on environmental projects in developing countries, including Eritrea, Ethiopia, India and Thailand.
Approached by CARICOM (Caribbean Community) consultants who were formulating options to tackle NAFTA’s impact on the Caribbean islands, she accepted a one-year contract to be a technical adviser on trade based at the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) headquarters in St. Lucia.
“Not much was accomplished during my year in St. Lucia, largely because of the presence of a small group I often referred to as the Caribbean Elite,” she wrote in her autobiography. “Sir Shridath Ramphal of Guyana and Sir Alister McIntyre, who was born in Grenada (he died last year), had long histories in Caribbean affairs and controlled the so-called Regional Negotiating Machinery. They had their own ideas about how to develop the Caribbean economy and although their ideas had been tested and found wanting in previous decades, they stood in the way of other ideas. The Caribbean Elite was its own little club pursuing its own narrow objectives, regardless of whether or not they were in the best interests of the Caribbean people.”
Returning to CIDA, Hosten was a Country Analyst in the Central and Eastern European branch and in the South East Asia division and a Canadian diplomat and aid worker for two years in Bangladesh before taking early retirement from the federal government in 2004 and returning to Grenada.
Jennifer Hosten on tour in Africa
Two months after her return, Hurricane Ivan pummeled the island, damaging 90 per cent of the homes, including Hosten’s newly purchased bungalow, and causing widespread destruction.
Utilizing her CIDA contacts, she assisted with aid relief for Grenada before opening a resort, Jenny’s Place, on Grand Anse Beach in 2005. She sold it two years ago.
Now residing in the Greater Toronto Area, Hosten enjoys reading, writing and spending quality time with her two children and five grandchildren.
Sophia Craig-Massey is a disaster and emergency management specialist with York Region and Beau Craig owns a property management company in Whistler, British Columbia.
“I recently told my daughter I feel truly blessed,” said Hosten who is a trained psychotherapist. “If I don’t travel again, it’s not the end of the world. The most rewarding thing for me is to have a family.”
Of the many countries she has visited, New Zealand stands out for Hosten who is a member of the Ontario Association of Mental Health Professionals.
Her first trip to the country was during her title reign in the spring of 1971.
“For some reason, that country is an integral part of my life,” she pointed out. “Some of my best friends reside there and I was adopted by the Maori population when I went there. It was a very long flight from London to New Zealand and I was travelling alone, but the six weeks spent there touring the country and meeting wonderful people was amazing.”
Jennifer Hosten with her parents Lyle and Phyllis and siblings Robin (l) and Pommie (r)
Jamaican Carole Crawford-Merkens, who resides in Ottawa, was the first Caribbean woman to become Miss World in 1963.
Other Caribbean winners are Canadian-born Cindy Breakspeare who represented Jamaica in 1976, Bermudan Gina Swainson in 1979, Jamaican politician Lisa Hanna in 1983 and Trinidad & Tobago’s Giselle Laronde-West three years later.
