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(NYASATIMES) Florence Banda, 37 wins Miss Big Lilongwe

Florence Banda, 37 wins Miss Big Lilongwe
By Nyasa Times
Published: March 7, 2010

Florence Banda, 37, scooped the Miss Big Matofotofo Lilongwe crown after she beat seven other contestants who took part in the pageant held at Sunbird Capital Hotel on Saturday night.

Miriam Kaudzu was crowned the first princess, Agnes Kapanda became the second princess while Bertha Tambala was crowned Miss Personality at a glittering occasion attended by Minister of Women and Gender, Patricia Kaliati and deputy minister of culture , youth and sport Billy Kaunda.

Although 12 contestants had been penciled for the event, the figure had to be scaled to eight after other contestants failed to make it on the night citing various reasons, according to the organisers.

Other contestants who defied the stereotypes that the modeling industry had attached to flesh women included Ronalisa Nyasulu, Memory Zinayi, Maureen Chiotcha and Maulana Chigoneka.

The Big beauty queens were paraded on catwalk in different categories that included the traditional attire session, formal and casual wear as well as the question and answer segment.

Florence a married woman with two kids who works at Zodiak Broadcasting Services said she was excited to scooped the first prize in the fat pageant.

“I am glad to be crowned the first Miss Matofoto in Malawi’s capital city. It has been a great event,” said Banda.

.Lwazi Mbowa the organizer who first introduced the show in Zimbabwe, paraded the Miss Biggy Matofotofo of Zimbabwe and her princess to a resounding cheers of the crowd.

“This is a new thing that we introduced,” Mbowa said. “Our first goal is to build the confidence of the big African women who could not take part in these other pageants because of their big bodies. Most of them lack confidence and we believe that after confidence building they will be able to achieve bigger things,” she said

Mbowa said ‘super-slim’ is no longer a pre-requisite for most beauty pageants.

The organizer said they will also hold the Miss Biggy pageants for ‘fabulous and thick’ women in commercial capital, Blantyre and Mzuzu City in the northern region.

“This pageant is a platform to recognise Africa’s true definition of beauty and at the same time, celebrate Africa’s true tradition,” she told Nyasa Times.

She said the contest aims at dislodging stereotypes that for a long time had been associated with weighty women. It also aimed at abandoning the western concept of beauty which does not appreciate well endowed African women.

Mbowa said she is working on modalities to popularize the unique beauty contest throughout Africa.

The western idea that beauty is only in the slim and tall was hammered into Africans during colonialism and it became the widely accepted conceptualization of beauty to the extent that all beauty pageants continent-wide emphasized on weight and height restrictions.

The coming of Miss-Biggy Matofotofo, therefore, would be a welcome development, as Africa would have shown its capability to redefine beauty according to its own values.

Labels: FLORENCE BANDA, MISS BIG MATOFOTOFO, MISS ELECTIONS

posted by MrK @ 7:58 PM