Winner of the 2002 edition of the Most Beautiful Girl Nigeria contest, she subsequently took part in the Miss Universe and Miss World pageant, where she made her country proud by winning the award for Continental Queen of beauty.
She is regarded as one of Nigeria’s most successful beauty queens of the years, achieving mainstream success in her relative fields of endeavour.
Ochuba-Akinlade has since gone into footwear manufacturing. Her brand of shoes has within a short time built a tall clientele list.
3rd Runner Up at last year’s Miss World, and proud winner of the Miss World Africa title, South Sudanese damsel Atong Demach is living her dream.
A year after becoming South Sudan’s first ever Miss World contestant, she’s moved on to raise funds worth thousands of dollars to support charity works in Sudan.
Her ‘Education For All’ campaign provides educational materials to hundreds of children of school going age in some of the mountainous parts of South Sudan.
Demach’s drive on this very campaign, is the desire is seeing most of these children from Africa’s newest nation go back to the classrooms.
Across South Sudan, Demach is seen as an inspiration to the youth, most of whom, are either finding their feet or yet to decide which career paths they want to take.
The pretty Miss Lopes won the 2011 edition of the Miss Universe pageant. She became the first Angolan, and also the sixth contestant of African descent to win the title.
Prior to that, she had won the Miss Angola, and Miss Angola UK competitions in 2010.
The 27 year-old has spent the last two years raising awareness about HIV/AIDS and its corresponding headache – stigmatization.
She’s travelled extensively in the last two years, actively engaging in fashion shows, exhibitions, charities and fund-raising activities.
She’s taken part in a number of deliberations and conferences on the environment (particularly land degradation) by the United Nations.
“I want to show the world that there is more to Africa than poverty, hunger and disease,” she’s said.
Seven years after winning the Miss Ghana pageant (in 2004), Inna Maryam Patty’s wish of owning the local franchise, was granted at last. Her company Exclusive Events Ghana Limited became the franchise holders of the Miss Ghana pageant, after the former handlers traded it off.
She went ahead to organize her first ever event as franchise holder in 2012, attracting a lot of goodwill from local and international corporate bodies.
Getting to own the franchise she’s said, will afford her the opportunity to position it in way consistent with international best practices. Patty’s EEGL also specializes in corporate charity, public relations and marketing communications, and special/themed events.
Prior to setting up EEGL, she built up a successful personal profile, which involved her having a stint at the London Stock Exchange, as headhunter.
Cindy Nell is a successful television presenter. On South African television, she’s worked on popular productions like Pasella, and Woza Lunchtime on pay-per-view channel Supersport.
She’s also taken part in reality competitions like Strictly Come Dancing as well as Celebrity Survivor Santa Carolina.
She won the Miss South Africa pageant in 2002, and placed a respectable second in the 2003 Miss Universe competition.
Nell has maintained a busy lifestyle these past years, going ahead to start her company C.N Excellence Promotion.
In November 2010, she launched her book “The Model and Pageant Guide”, an A-Z industry publication that offers insightful tips on how to win such competitions.
Cindy has grown to become a household name in South Africa, achieving a lot of success in the fields of fashion, modelling, publishing and media.
Currently a Deputy Minister for Children, Gender and Social Protection, the 1997 winner of the Miss Ghana pageant, is also a parliamentarian in Ghana’s august house.
Locally, she is revered as being the “first beauty queen” to enter Ghana’s parliament, a claim that has loudly trumpeted and used as a goodwill measure by the organizers of the pageant.
Shortly after becoming Miss Ghana, she took to fashion and design, learning from her mother, who had been at it her whole life. From very humble beginnings, she was able to build a solid local and international clientele base.
Alongside her fashion and design dream, she started warming herself up politically, actively taking part in local and community politics.
In 2012, she contested and won the Ledzokuku Constituency seat in the Ghanaian capital, Accra, for the ruling National Democratic Congress.
Okiti-Dua’s passionate stance on women and children close associates say is what made her the obvious choice for the current ministerial portfolio she is occupying.
Winner of the 2000 edition of the Miss South Africa pageant, Jo-Ann Strauss has over the past years, lived a successful life in modelling, business and public speaking.
She’s shared the modelling stage with some of the world’s leading names including Naomi Campbell, and Kate Moss.
The 32-year-old rose to prominence shortly after taking part in the Miss Universe and Miss World pageants, becoming a much loved face domestically and internationally.
She is a successful media personality, international event host (co-hosted the 2010 FIFA World Cup for German television network ZDF) and fundraiser, who has leveraged on her goodwill to bring relief to thousands of households.
Prior to taking up the World Cup co-hosting job, she started the charity organization Princess Project in 2008.
She’s also started a new television show on African beauty – ‘Glambition’, which “features achievers, go-getters and overall showcase some of South Africa’s most talented and influential personalities who posses glamour, ambition and a drive to succeed.”
She became an overnight public figure, recording an enormous global appeal that broadened her horizons, and ushered her into a world of limitless possibilities.
She signed deals with Elite Model Management, and DNA Model management, a window of opportunity that saw her grace the covers of some of the leading fashion publications in the world.
Ten years after winning FOA, she launched her own modelling agency OModel Africa, which also became a sponsor of the 2008 edition of the FOA.
In the last few years, she’s volunteered for NGOs working in Africa, taking part in business incubating programmes for young Nigerians. Across Africa, she is seen as one of the continent’s brightest young business entrepreneurs.
In May 2013, she recorded what is perhaps her biggest break yet, getting the franchise to host an African edition of Tyra Banks’ Next Top Model franchise.
Africa’s Next Top Model as it will be called, hits free-to-air and pay-per-view television soon.O
East African beauty Flaviana Matata has built a successful modelling career out of her modest success at the Miss Universe pageant in 2007. Matata was crowned Miss Universe Tanzania and went on to finish in the top 15 of the international contest later that year. She became the first contestant from Tanzania to compete with a shaved head.
Matata was raised by her father in the Tanzanian town of Shinyanga after her mother was killed in the infamous MV Bukoba ferry accident on Lake Victoria. She went on to study electrical engineering before competing in the Miss Universe contest.
The 24-year-old went on to launch a successful modelling career off her performance in the Miss Universe contest and today she is signed to Wilhelimina NY, Next models Europe and BOSS-SA. She does runway work for some of the top designers in the world, including Vivienne Westwood, Tommy Hilfiger and Louise Gray.
Matata also has a charitable organisation, the Flaviana Matata Foundation, which aims to promote the education and health of young African girls particularly in rural areas.
The first Black African to win the Miss World title, Darego stunned the world in 2001, when she beat several other, equally beautiful ladies to win the prestigious crown, at the 51st edition held in South Africa.
It was Sub-Saharan Africa’s biggest break yet at the time, which would later go on to become an inspiring tale for other young hopefuls.
Darego, who was 18 at the time, blazed the trail for greater recognition for Africa at the pageant. Prior to the Miss World shot, she had taken part and won the Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria pageant, which holds the local franchise.
She also took part in the M-Net Face of Africa, and Miss Universe competitions. Subsequently, she signed lucrative deals with the Next Model and Ford Models agencies.
It’s been 12 years after winning that ultimate crown, but Darego continues to live her dream. In 2010, she gracefully launched a style and fashion reality show called Stylogenic on local Nigerian television.
Over the past few years, she’s been at the forefront of Africa’s fashion and design industry, holding her own against established entrepreneurs.
She’s also planning the launch of the AD by Agabni, a luxurious and chic denim clothing range. “Launching AD by Agbani is a dream come true for me. Jeans are my loved go-to everyday look and it’s a love I share with a lot of young girls and women for its comfort and simplicity,” she says. AD by Agbani is out in stores from June 2013.
Menaye
‘Once a queen, always a queen’ is a hackneyed yet true phrase, lived by most beauty queens.
While it may mean staying young, fresh and ultimately beautiful for years, it also bestows a kind of responsibility and obligation on the part of beauty queens to stay relevant and useful in their immediate confines and communitiesWhile some are able to use the platforms these pageants and reality shows offer, to their advantage, building empires and kingdoms of their own, others simply fall away.
HowzitMSN takes a look at ten of Africa’s beauty queens who - whether through charity, business, modelling, television or some other career - have made their reign last longer than a year.
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