THE MISS WORLD AFTERMATH: What the people said after the India pageant

Thousands of facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram and other social media posts flooded the digital space following the crowning of this year’s Miss World. On our Freedom Square platform this week, we share these two offerings from a UK -based model a

and I love the fact that she is from Europe and not a powerhouse country. But, Botswana!!! Botswana answered her questions cleverly, her advocacy and catwalk were flawless!

This brings me to the question: Why does Miss World hate black African girls so much? No matter how good they are, they keep denying them of their rightful win because they use white patriarchal definition of beauty to judge black African women. We haven’t had a black African winner since Agbani Darego of Nigeria, since 2001. Like Nawat, Julia Morley crowns who Julia Morley likes! She did it to Olivia Yace of Cote d’Ivoire in 2022, and did it again this year to Lesego Chombo of Botswana.

We all know that Miss World judges, like Miss Grand International, are just like window dressing for a luxury shop! They are just props/stage sets, nothing more.I really hate this game show/conference staging where the contestants sit on the stage. It is actually hilarious now. I’m glad I didn’t watch the useless show from the beginning. [MISS SAHHARA – UKbased Beauty Queen and Model]

IF LESEGO CHOMBO WAS FROM SOUTH AFRICA

My thesis is that Chombo could have probably won if she was from Mzansi. It is convenient for me to say this because as they tell us in the classics, after war, everyone becomes a wise general. But let’s read! First we must recognise that Miss World is an entity that is owned by an individual called Julia Morley, before that it was owned by his husband, Eric Morley. These entities do not just exist to fulfill humanitarian efforts, but are also driven by business and profit motives.

From a business perspective, It does not make economic sense to give certain countries the Miss World crown, they are better off as second or third place. For example, what business interests will Miss World and its sponsors profit when a country like Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Uganda, wins a crown? Unlike say Mzansi, many African countries including us Botswana, do not have a developed creative and cinematic industry. Our television industry is government-dominated, our queen would just be given 2 television interviews, one at the Breakfast show and another at BTV 2, then that’s it. The TV and media industry is not so integrated with the world, Miss World would have to actually do the spade work of investing in our systems, and even hiring publicists, consultants and their own media personnel. Mzansi has well-developed infrastructure and systems. Their athlete, Oscar Pistorius kills Reeva, they dedicate a live TV channel to the case, they even can produce a Netflix series.

They exploit opportunities and monetize them. They can easily export talents and build networks with established global television players. Which story of a contemporary Motswana who is alive today has sold anything? Stories are documented through screen shots, gossip and Likes on Facebook.

Again, some African countries, including us Botswana, do not have a developed beauty and cosmetic industry. We don’t have celebrities and business people within the world of fashion who can influence sales and purchasing trends. Moreover, we do not have the purchasing power to actually buy proper original luxury, and designer labels. To put this to perspective, the median income in Gaborone is 4480 Pula and an entry level Hermes Card Holder is just above 430 USD, that’s just around 6000 Pula, and their mid range handbags are around 4500 USD which is just around 60 000 Pula. Our millionaires are very small in number, our middle class is small, only a few people earn between 90k-140k per month. If Hermes were to dress our queen, how many celebrities would actually buy their bags and dresses?

Let’s look at billion dollar companies and international companies. Mzansi has the highest number of billion dollar and international companies. Dove for instance can use Zozibini, Miss Universe, in their Ads because already there is a Unilever branch in Mzansi, remember Unilever is a British based company, and its brands are Vaseline, Sunlight, Omo, Axe, Handy Andy, Knorrox, Ponds, etc. Interestingly Mzansi exports all these products to all SADC countries. On the other hand, Mikella who gave our queen the diamond neckpiece is not even based in Botswana. This point should be clear. Our fashion industry is also a shame. Our fashion designers are very talented, but most of them operate either from African Mall, makeshift stalls, backyards and homesteads.

That is undesirable. In Mzansi for instance, you have big names, Marianne Flasser, David Tlale, Craig Jacobs. Marianne Flasser for example operates in Saxonwald, Johannesburg, the ambience of her studio and office, the professional setup, would justify why she cost so much, and why they also do private consultations. It does not make business sense to give the crown to a country which is not even going to exploit the opportunities that come with having the Miss World crown. Even if the racist argument was to be true, racists are still self-interested and rational people.They would award you a crown and celebrate you, if such crowning would bring them business and economic profits. Hence this very argument that if the black person was from a well developed economy like South Africa, chances are, they would have won, because economic and business interests would have been more appealing.