Miss
Fashion Week Africa (MFWA) is the
latest example of a beauty pageant in Africa that got away with holding winnings
from their pageants who won.
Kamwine
Rossete former MISS FASHION WEEK EAST AFRICA
(MFWA),According to Kawmine Rosette, they are calling upon the new contestants to
withdraw from the pageant to avoid wasting their time becoming subjects of an
exploitation.
Does beauty empower or exploit?
It is a known fact that African models do not have it easy in the modelling industry. Why is that African models always have to work twice as hard to get only half of the reward in comparison to models from other continents and ethnic backgrounds? The answer to that question may be the unwelcoming nature of the beauty industry towards dark-skinned models, but we must not forget the agencies and pageants in Africa that exploit our very own.
Miss
Fashion Week Africa (MFWA) is the
latest example of a beauty pageant in Africa that got away with holding
winnings from their pageant from the winners. In November 2016,
Almost
one year ago, the Nigerian company announced Adama Jobe (Gambian), Kamwine
Rosette (Ugandan), Rauna Kapoffi (Namibian) and Vanessa Kilem (Congolese) as
the four winners of Miss Fashion Week Africa, a pageant which promised a cash
prize of $3000, a trip round to Miami, USA and official crowning to each of the
four contestants.
Today,
after a whole year the winners of the pageant are yet to receive any of the
mentioned prizes, with an exception of the trip to Miami. This is not the
first-time models are given vague promises and then left without legal basis to
defend themselves. The four models spent the entire year in the dark, looking
for ways to communicate with the organisers of the pageant in search of ways to
bring their various platforms to life. However, all efforts to communicate with
the MFWA team was a complete fail which is what led to the biggest campaign of
the various social media platform of the beauty queens. The models opened up
about their share experience on Sunday 12th November via Facebook
Live with a large audience, the hashtag #ProtectOurGirls has
been trending since.
they put forth their message whilst making it very clear that their
objective is to protect the upcoming models and to break the culture of silence.
According to Kawmine Rosette, they are calling upon the new contestants to
withdraw from the pageant to avoid wasting their time becoming subjects of an
exploitation.
The
Congolese representative Vanessa Kilem who could not join the live stream emphasized through comments their common desire to prevent such exploitation
and ill-treatment from occurring again in the very near future, to them it is
more about saving their fellow sisters in the industry.
‘This has absolutely
very little to do with the cash prize, $3000 can be easily earned in modelling
gigs here and there, however, it is about the fact that beauty pageant
companies think it is okay to get away with treating ladies whichever way that
pleases them. Beauty Queens have dreams but these companies crush our dreams
when they treat us like we do not matter’, said the Gambian representative Adama
Jobe
Vanessa
Kilem ‘This has absolutely very little to
do with the cash prize,it is about the fact that beauty pageant companies think
it is okay to get away with treating ladies whichever way that pleases them.
The
Miss Fashion Week Africa Team has gone on to organize a new pageant in 2018 and
already models are alarmed by the contracts they have been presented with. The
new contestants are to cater for their own flight tickets and accommodation to
the US, yet they are bound by very strict terms that restrict them from doing
any work outside the scoop of MFWA. ‘’Our flight tickets to the US were catered
for last year, however, we did not receive our winnings or any form of support
to start work in our various countries. My advice would be to stay away from
this pageant and any pageant with vague terms.’’ Rauna, the Namibian
representative advised upcoming models to avoid falling into a dangerous trap.
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