Botswana to host the first ever Miss Africa

Dumisani Ncube | Wednesday January 14, 2015 15:37

The pageant aims to promote the diversity of the continent and also create job opportunities for young people in the country and around Africa.

He hinted that 17 countries have already shown interest in the event and they aim to have all the African countries participate.

Miss Africa will launch at a venue yet to be confirmed in April. “Africa is known as a war zone with all the civil wars going on therefore we want to show the world our diversity and beautiful cultures,” he said.

Morris further mentioned that Miss Africa also aims at creating employment for young people and boosting the country’s economy. 

“We are looking forward to employing a number of people ranging from designers, SMMEs to marketing experts that we can work on this project directly and indirectly,” he said.

He said a group of modelling scouts would tour the continent such as the previous Miss Botswana Tourism and former Big Brother Africa contestant, Motamma Sesinyi, and experienced models Betty Seatlholo and Boingotlo Motlalekgosi.

As part of the scouting and vetting of models the participating countries will first host beauty pageants in their countries of origin for winners to participate in Miss Africa next year. 

Botswana will host its own pageant that will be titled Miss Africa Botswana in August for other participating countries to benchmark.

Miss Africa Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Bruce Nkgakile revealed that the budget for the build up campaign is approximately P6 million and they have already started working on promoting and marketing the event.

He, however, mentioned that they are currently facing a challenge of raising more funds that will boost the campaign and the event.

Nkgakile mentioned that the pageant will reflect how indigenous and self-dependant Africa is. 

“We will not have any Western cultural practices at the show. 

For example instead of models wearing bikinis they will put on their African attires,” he explained.

Nkgakile said that besides promoting the continent’s diversity this pageant is aimed at promoting the girl-child in Africa by providing young women a platform to excel.

A website for the pageant will be presented at the launch of the event where officials from participating countries will also attend.

The organisers of Miss Africa mentioned that the event will be held annually and it will be hosted in different countries.

Kgosi Mosadi Seboko is the chairperson of the Miss Africa advisory board.