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Miss World pageant pregnant with racism!
This time around, murmurs of disapproval are growing. Western hypocrisy reared its ugly head at last Sunday’s 60th Miss World finals held in London and Africa feels cheated.
Nigerian Abgani Darego
remains the only African to win the coveted Miss World title, a feat she
achieved on African soil at Sun City in South Africa in 2001.
Models
from Angola, Ethiopia, Cape Verde, Lesotho, Guyana, South Sudan, Malawi
and Zambia failed to take part in the Miss World contest in London last
Sunday because they had not been issued with visas.
Even as Zimbabwe celebrates two successes by reigning Miss Zimbabwe Malaika Mushandu at the Miss World and Lisa Morgan at the Miss International in China, the refusal by Britain to grant eight African beauty queens visas has rattled the soul of this event.
Zimbabwe
Tourism Authority chief executive Karikoga Kaseke, who is elated at the
achievements of both Mushandu and Morgan, decried the British
authorities’ decision to deny the African models a shot at the Miss
World title.
“The Miss World pageant is pregnant with racism. I have never been there myself but my team always gives me feedback every time they return and we have the reports,” said Kaseke.
The tourism boss, whose
organisation has been running the Miss Zimbabwe pageant for the past
seven years, said before handing back the running of the pageant he had
managed to convince at least 90 percent of African countries to boycott
the pageant.
“What we need is to speak with one voice as Africa and boycott the 2012 pageant because this Miss World is racist and discriminatory. We can no longer spearhead the idea of boycotting the event because as ZTA we are no longer running Miss Zimbabwe, but we really need to see some changes,” he said.
He questioned: “Is there a known African beauty
queen who has been at the Miss World and failed to return to her
country? This is just racism and unreasonable. I feel pity for the girls
that were denied the chance to represent their countries, though.”
The Miss World pageant, which celebrated its 60th year in London where it all began in 1951, is by far the most prestigious beauty competition on the planet.
But Mushandu (19) was named in the top 10, a feat the ambitious model was not willing to accept, saying she deserved more.
“I
feel like I really let my country and myself down. I feel I should at
least have been in the top seven because I really worked hard and I
could see my competition wasn’t that stiff,” said Mushandu who returns
to Zimbabwe on Tuesday morning.
The 19-year-old, who becomes only the second Zimbabwean queen to be named in the top 10 at the prestigious pageant, also castigated organisers of the pageant for having failed to allow eight other African models who could have made a difference.
Her return to the country this Tuesday is awaited by all and the ZTA is planning a massive homecoming party.
“These
are our heroes. They are our diamond girls because this is also the
year that we are also celebrating the KP diamond certification and the
hosting of the next United Nations World Tourism
Organisation General Assembly (UNWTO). This is our year,” said Kaseke.
The
diamond girl’s party will have to wait a little longer, though, as
Morgan will be spending another week in China with the organisers of the
Miss International where she scooped two accolades.
“They informed us that she will be spending at least 14 days being oriented as she will now be working with them. She is now one of them and, as you know, the Miss International is the second most prestigious pageant after Miss World, so we are very proud of Lisa,” he said.
Golden Escapades Executive Lodges, Tours and Transfers directors Rudo and Mercy Nyangulu, who offered Mushandu their Masibanda Lodge where she was coached ahead of the pageant, also expressed delight.
Mercy said Mushandu did the country proud despite limited preparation time.
“I
believe she could have reached another level had she received more
support and started preparing earlier. She has amazed me with what she
has done,” she said.
“She is a solid, God-fearing, young woman who will still go on to do greater things.” - Sunday Mail
Morgan
and Mushandu join the likes of Angeline Musasiwa, Brita Masalethulini
and Vanessa Sibanda, as some of the few Zimbabweans who have done well
on the global stage.
Could the November 6 finals where a greater part of Africa was excluded be the last time the continent gets bullied on the international stage or will the sleeping giant show the world that it has muscles too?
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