The modeling industry is widely considered borderline psychotic and notorious for pressurizing models to eat cotton wool and carrot sticks so they can maintain a size zero and be booked for glitzy shows across the world. The models completely lost it with the size zero craze and many of them ended up looking wafer thin and gaunt, with eating disorders like bulimia and anorexia. Diet pills were the order of the day as women felt ashamed to have a little meat on their bones.
The craze hit Africa, and plum sized African women aspired to be like the slim white women who were splashed over the covers of glossy magazines. Suddenly thin was considered sexy in an African society where most women were plum sized. In 2009 in Zimbabwe, Africans decided to re-assert the nature of African women as having ample bosoms and curvy booties. They decided to launch the Miss Curvy Africa, a pageant that would later be renamed Diamond Queen of Africa. Batswana joined Africa in this celebration last year and selected Thabang Lesejane to represent the country at the pageant.
Auditions will be held once again in July after which the Botswana representative will compete for the continental crown in Namibia. According to Thuto Marobela, the National Director for Botswana, the Diamond Queen of Africa creates a platform for curvier women to pursue a career in the modeling and fashion industry. Marobela said following both sets of auditions, the finalists will be taken for a week long boot camp where they will be trained on the basic principles of the modeling industry, among them fashion, make up and how to walk the ramp.
“The finalists will also be expected to become part of any charity organization of their choice and their contribution to this organization will contribute to the final judgment,” he said.
He added that the crowning of the Queen will take place in the last week of September at a venue to be announced. A total of 38 African countries are expected to take part in the finals in Windhoek, Namibia. The pageant is open to all women who wear dress size 34 and upwards.
