Miss Independence

September 30 is the day that Botswana gained its Independence in 1966.

Last year at this time, I went to Kasane where I saw amazing herds of elephant migrating to the water. This year, i decided to stay local to see what it was like in the village and what kind of festivities took place.

This year, I ended up judging the Miss Independence Beauty Pageant. The winner of the Pageant was to become an advocate for socio-economic issues in the community. All the pageant contestants were paired with local NGOs to learn more about the socio-economic issues in the community and how they could be spokespeople for their specific causes.

I had never been to a beauty pageant before, let alone in Botswana. Beauty Pageants are a prolific event, happening all the time in the community. There are beauty pageants for absolutely everything and every occasion here...pageants for preschool kids, for Miss HIV Positive, for women over 40 yrs old, the possibilities are endless.

I had no idea what to expect when I got roped in to be a judge for the Pageant. My urge was to have a scoring sheet, that way the winner would be based on points.

The girls were judged in 3 different areas: personal presentation (poise, confidence, composure), personality (creativity, individuality), and presentation (grooming, clothing and makeup). There were 11 contestants between the ages of 16-26. There were 5 rounds:
Round 1: Casual Wear
Round 2: Sporty Attire
Round 3: Formal or Business wear
Intermission: Dance Routine
Round 4: Traditional Clothing
Round 5: African Traditional

The Casual wear round was very cute because the girls showed alot of creativity and highlighted some really cool clothes - purple and green high tops, different fro's and weaves, the feminine version of MC Hammer Pants.

Round 2 Sporty, was the coolest round since I had never seen it before. A bunch of girls dressed in jerseys, but was an interesting twist on the idea that these girls are not just models or beauty queens, but are active as well.

Round 3 of "formal wear" was more like business casual wear. Some girls we could tell were much more comfortable in these outfits and showed some spirit of empowerment. While some tottered in high heels, this was the best round in my opinion where the girls really shined.

For the traditional Clothing round, the girls donned modern day versions of traditional skins - a much cooler take on the "bikini" round. The girls still had only top and bottom covered with a bare midsection with traditional beads and or hair. Each girl demonstrated a traditional skill: sewing, sweeping, making traditional beer, pounding maize.

The African Traditional round I thought would have been switched with the "Traditional Clothing" round. But this "African" traditional was in fact Botswana Traditional dress with German Print - long flowing gowns specially made for the girl.

Judging was difficult since all the girls were pretty, talented, and showed different personalities. Some were more outgoing and charismatic than others, but some were also more consistent, natural, and humble. I was actually amazed at how much I could read from how the girls presented themselves on the catwalk. Though, some of the reads may have been more judgmental than we'd want (I was actually more interested in hearing presentations and short speeches from the girls on their experiences and beliefs in socio economic issues), their composure on stage in different rounds was actually interesting to see. All the girls showed alot of courage in participating in the event and I hope they learned alot from their NGO experiences.

Congrats to Mpho who was awarded Miss Independence 2011.