Miss Malawi search is on
Media giants Nation Publications Limited (NPL) and Zodiak Broadcasting station (ZBS) last year took over The Miss Malawi Beauty Pegeant after it stopped for a number of years. Cecilia Khofi was crowned the country’s beauty queen for 2017. Now six months later the organisers are on the road, scouting for the next beauty queen for 2018. Our entertainment editor Edith Gondwe sought more from the spokesperson of the organising committee, Africano Phiri, in this interview.
Q
: You have started the search for Miss Malawi 2018. Why has the process been initiated so early?
Q
: It is not necessarily so early, you know we have a round of auditions in all the three regions and another round of regional finals where the judges choose those to contest for the national finals. And the national finals are scheduled for the first half of 2018. And we are almost in the last quarter of this year. So I wouldn’t say we have started earlier than expected
Q
: The process to choose Miss Malawi is quite complex…..what are you looking for from the girls?
A
: We are looking for girls that will ably represent the nation as a beauty queen, that is number 1 and secondly we are also looking for personal attributes that’s ability to express oneself in good English, presentation skills, good manners and character. You know being Miss Malawi means carrying the national flag of beauty, this is in fact Miss Malawi contest is recognised at the international level hence the need to scouting for one that can ably represent the nation
Q: This is the second time that the media giants NPL and ZBS are handling Miss Malawi beauty contest…..what has been the experience so far?
A: It has been a wonderful experience of good team work, collaboration, combined levels of synergy which is bearing productive fruits.
Q
: The theme for next year’s pageant is overpopulation. Why are you repeating the theme?
A
: Yes we are going by the same theme. You know the issue of overpopulation cannot be overemphasised. It needs more than than 12to thouroghly deal with it. We are looking at it as an ongoing campaign and advocacy that has to have an ongoing communication approach for it to achieve the objectives and desired results
Q
: The current Miss Malawi is still on the throne…..are these auditions not going to disturb her activities?
A
: They will not and they can’t. Miss Malawi office has a period or tenure of office which is one year. Now as the search for another Miss Malawi has began it does not in any way detract the current one Cecilia Khofi from her activities. She is firm and not shaken. In fact she is supporting the task force in our efforts during the search for the next queen. That explains how professional she is and spells out the level of coordination, cohesiveness and unity of efforts that is there between her office and the organisers.
Q
: What is your message to Malawian girls and guardians?
A
: Firstly to the girls, those that aspire to contest, my message is to change our way of thinking and view of beauty pageantry. There have been misconceptions about this. It is time we look at pageantry as a profession and not a game of failures, a game of those that have no future. It is so discouraging when sometimes you see girls that have the potential to make it coiling and refraining from the contest. Some think about what others will think about them simply for participating, let’s change that mind set. Things have changed, seasons have changed. We too have to be real and change our mentality and change. So I implore of all girls out there within the age range of 18-25 to come to the audition centre in Blantyre, Lilongwe and Mzuzu to audition and stand a chance.
And to parents out there as well. We need to understand the values and support and encourage our girls to participate instead of discouraging them n
