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JOHANNESBURG: Barefoot, wearing traditional costumes including animal hide skirts and elaborately beaded headdresses, the contestants strutted the stage before Ghanaian Rebecca Asamoah was crowned the first Miss Africa Continent.
The 24-year-old dental hygienist beat 11 finalists drawn from an original list of 40 contestants from across the continent in the inaugural pageant at Johannesburg’s Gold Reef City casino on Saturday night.
Asamoah, who wore braids, entered the stage in a traditional Ghanaian Ashanti gold-coloured beaded crown and then returned in a evening dress made from the country’s trademark kente cloth. She walked away with a grant to study business management at Monash university in Johannesburg. Runner up in the 2015 Miss Ghana competition, Asamoah said she wanted to see young people help uplift the continent. “There are a lot of things to be fixed in Africa — water, education, environmental issues,” she said.
The pageant is the brain child of South African film producer Neo Mashishi, who says it aims to empower young African women.
“This is the first ever Miss Africa Continent,” said Mashishi, adding that it had been five years in the making.
“This is about Africa, we are selling Africa to the world, and we are proud to be Africa.”
“The way everything was done was African, we didn’t emulate anything from Miss Universe, or Miss World,” he said.
JOHANNESBURG: Barefoot, wearing traditional costumes including animal hide skirts and elaborately beaded headdresses, the contestants strutted the stage before Ghanaian Rebecca Asamoah was crowned the first Miss Africa Continent.
The 24-year-old dental hygienist beat 11 finalists drawn from an original list of 40 contestants from across the continent in the inaugural pageant at Johannesburg’s Gold Reef City casino on Saturday night.
Asamoah, who wore braids, entered the stage in a traditional Ghanaian Ashanti gold-coloured beaded crown and then returned in a evening dress made from the country’s trademark kente cloth. She walked away with a grant to study business management at Monash university in Johannesburg. Runner up in the 2015 Miss Ghana competition, Asamoah said she wanted to see young people help uplift the continent. “There are a lot of things to be fixed in Africa — water, education, environmental issues,” she said.
The pageant is the brain child of South African film producer Neo Mashishi, who says it aims to empower young African women.
“This is the first ever Miss Africa Continent,” said Mashishi, adding that it had been five years in the making.
“This is about Africa, we are selling Africa to the world, and we are proud to be Africa.”
“The way everything was done was African, we didn’t emulate anything from Miss Universe, or Miss World,” he said.
