a SARDC Service	13 July 1999

THE CHANGING FACE OF BEAUTY PAGEANTS

by Diana Mavunduse

Beauty pageants are no longer about modelling half-naked in catwalk styles, but a life-time opportunity for young women to become ambassadors for their own countries. To be such an ambassador, a woman is chosen on the basis of her beauty, deportment and brains, and not political ideology or affiliation.

"Modelling is no longer considered just as a hobby, it is a profession. It is a stage for young women to show their talents and for designers to show how professional they are," says Marvellous Nyahuye, communications manager for M-Net /Multi-Choice Zimbabwe.

The year 1999 saw the crowning of Mpule Kwelagobe (19) of Botswana as Miss Universe. The pageant is American-owned and it was previously dominated by western contestants. Over the years it has spread to Africa, now a lot of African beauty queens are taking part in Miss Universe.

The delicate question of motherhood concerned the pageant. Miss Guam, Trisaha Helfin, from a Marian Island in USA, was sent home because of her "indelicate condition". Pageant officials contended Trisha was pregnant, a condition outlawed in the competition.

The question whether Miss Universe should step down if she became pregnant during her reign was the question which saw Mpule win.

Mpule's intelligent answer won her the crown. "I think it should not in anyway interrupt her duties, she should celebrate her femininity. Having children is a celebration of womanhood for all females, including beauty queens," she said.

"The question to some seemed so provocative in the sense that it [infringes on] a human right to have babies," says Maleta Mogwe-Lock, the organiser for Miss Universe Botswana.

"With her intelligence and composure, she came out as a personification of the ideal southern African woman, one who is forward-looking, educated, ambitious, and assertive. It was as if she was speaking for an entire generation," adds Mogwe-Lock.

The pageants have long been derided as shallow affairs that demean women by promoting style over substance as a feminine role model, but that perception has been eroded over the years.

Emang Basadi one of Botswana's oldest and largest women's organisations has officially welcomed Mpule's win with an advert in the national press which read:

"To all young Batswana women we say: the sky is the limit, Mpule has set the pace. She has proved that women can take Batswana to greater heights, especially in the next millennium. Cast your vote for a woman in the coming general elections."

Commenting on the advert, Alice Kwaramba of Women in Development Southern Africa Awareness (WIDSAA) Project said, "The sky is the limit for all women in southern Africa. Mpule proved that for women to make it in this competitive world, there is need for self- confidence, determination and education."

The increasing number of entrants from southern African countries in international beauty pageants shows that attitudes have changed over the years, people are now appreciating the event.

"Parents are now encouraging their children to participate in these pageants. Misconceptions have been erased by the success of other beauty queens. Who wouldn't want to see her daughter to be an ambassador?" says Nyahuye in an interview.

She adds, with the introduction of Face of Africa, M-Net hopes to help foster a positive image of Africa by creating valuable and exciting new opportunities for many of Africa's most talented models, both male and female.

Young as she is, Mpule is not only representing her country or southern Africa, but Africa as a whole. Faced with many duties, the most challenging one is to portray a positive image of Africa and to rub out all the negative aspects reported about the continent.

Like her predecessor Wendy Fritzgerald of Trinidad and Tobago, Mpule wants to highlight the issues of AIDS from a southern African point of view. Her country, Botswana, and other southern African nations such as South Africa and Zimbabwe, are among the worst affected by the deadly pandemic.

Most models know that being a beauty queen, one has a lot of opportunities in the business world. Those who come back after their stint in Europe start their own modelling agencies, some become designers others complete their studies there and come back to work in their own countries.

The exposure they get enriches their minds to start up businesses and it is also an opportunity for African designers to show their professionalism with an African taste, as it happened to designer Angelo John of Savannah Creations, Botswana. He designed the dress that helped Mpule win the crown.

Like Mpule, Angelo instantly got international acclaim and since then his life has changed over night, he has been asked to design clothes for other countries.

The producer of M-Net Face of Africa, Jan Malan says, "there is need for conscientisation in schools and in the society to try and change the perception of beauty, especially with the parents."

The beauty queens like Mpule become role models for the younger girls who want to enter into the modelling scene.

"The will-power, courage and positiveness combined with dazzling beauty and brains will get Mpule wherever she wants to go in life. Could there be a fitter celebration of femininity?" writes Victoria Massimo of The Voice, a Botswana weekly. (SARDC)