The official organizers of Miss Universe Jamaica, have defended their choice to use a costume depicting Annie Palmer described by them as ‘The Legend of Rose Hall’, as the National costume for Miss Universe Jamaica 2019, at the Miss Universe pageant competition on Sunday.

In a statement shared on their official social media pages, the Miss Universe Jamaica organizers, cited that owing to the fact that the current Miss Universe Jamaica, is from Montego Bay, they chose to highlight “a tourism icon and national treasure from the tourism capital… and decided that the Rose Hall great house and its legend Annie Palmer would be a fitting story, as Rose Hall developments was also her sponsor.” The organizers went further to say “we never sought to glorify slavery, nor promote witchcraft or any of the folk-tales Annie Palmer has been accused of, instead what we sought to do was to just tell the story of another part of Jamaican history.”

The statement by the Miss Universe Jamaica franchise still did not go down well with many users on social media, who are of the belief that, even if the story of Annie Palmer is just a myth, there is nothing that can justify, choosing a costume which represents that of a story about a plantation owner, and slave master, who tortured slaves. Many Jamaicans on social media, shared the sentiment that the costume was inappropriate, and glorifies slavery as a ‘celebrated’ part of our culture.

The Miss Universe Jamaica franchise has been under heavy fire on social media since Saturday afternoon, when an image of 19-year-old Iana Garcia, Miss Universe Jamaica 2019, in her national costume depicting Annie Palmer, went viral, with many social media Jamaican users, questioning the reasoning behind the choice for a national costume.

Miss Universe Jamaica 2019, Iana Garcia, did not make it pass the preliminary stage of the Miss Universe pageant held on Sunday night in Atlanta, Georgia which was won by Miss South Africa.