Twenty-One Models to Compete for the Miss TiBaKalanga Beauty Pageant 2022
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By Nkosilathi Nkomo
December can’t come soon enough for the twenty-one successfully registered models who will compete in the beauty pageant competition for the Miss TiBaKalanga 2022 title. The competition be held at the TG Silundika Cultural Community Centre, the TGSCCC, at Gala near Plumtree, Zimbabwe. The number of models is expected to grow in the coming weeks with some villages in the Ward 6 community, Bulilima District only recently having completed their village level competition. Other villages are still yet to follow suit but if they can’t meet the September 15th deadline then they will enter the competition next year. The delay has largely been due to the Covid 19 restrictions.
How Do Villages get Involved in the Competition?
Early this year, the TGSCCC Beauty Pageant Committee issued an invitation to various villages through social media and other means to participate in the competition. Those villages which responded positively were then tasked to identify a resident who would act as the pageant coordinator. The village coordinator’s responsibility is to attend meetings, workshops to ensure he or she understands the rules of the competition and also to recruit models in his or her village. For the cluster of villages around the cultural centre, their competitions are held at the cultural centre, all on a single day whereas those who are located further away can hold their competition in their respective locations. The pageant committee will always on hand to facilitate the process and to ensure that the guidelines of the competition are followed.
In April 2021 the TGSCCC hosted 5 villages namely, Mangarame, Manguba, Garamtata, Ntoli and Bhembenene. The competition was held with strict observance of the Covid protocols. The top three winners from each one of those villages qualified to advance to the finals. Then in June, the centre hosted Gala and Kungubo villages and again in August, Khekhethe and Gambo villages held their competition. A total of 27 models from these villages qualify to compete for the coveted Miss TiBaKalanga title. A few other villages have expressed interest in participating, such as Jutshume, Gwambe and Khame, Sinotsi, Goho and Goba.
What Happens Next?
The next three months will prove to be somewhat stressful for many of the contestants. Two thirds of them have not yet secured sponsorship. Many businesses are still yet to fully understand the concept of sponsorship, but with few exceptions. Ideally, a model will wear a t-shirt that bears the sponsor’s business logo in the introduction round of the competition. The aim is to advertise the business to the audience. It is a mutually beneficial arrangement. The TGSCCC has put a cap on sponsorship and limits it to R700 or $55 so that no one has an unfair advantage over others. However, a few lucky models have already secured sponsorship from local businesses while one lucky model has received hers from a bowtie business as far away as Saskatchewan, Canada for the second year in a row. A few other models will be sponsored by well-wishers in the Diaspora. What usually happens whenever a pledge is received is that the pageant committee will award the sponsorship through a draw of the contestants assigned numbers. The number picked will be recipient of that sponsorship. The models will also spend the remaining time learning more Kalanga language vocabulary and grammar which will enable them to answer the judges’ questions.
What is the Miss TiBaKalanga Beauty Pageant Competition About?
The beauty pageant was established in part to promote the Kalanga cultural heritage. It is just one of the many projects that are part of the TiBaKalanga (cultural) Festival which came into being after an International Cultural Marketing Workshop held at the TGSCCC in 2016 and facilitated by a US Fulbright Scholar Prof. Gordon Bronitsky.
In the coming weeks, a few workshops are planned to help the girls understand more about this beauty pageant competition and also for the judges to be familiar with the judging criteria.
The Miss TiBaKalanga Beauty Pageant is a competition that mainly focuses on the natural beauty of its contestants although it incorporates other attributes such as talent, intelligence, personality and answers to the judges’ questions as asked. The winners of this competition will be known as beauty queens. Hair, gowns, talent, modelling and personal interviews will factor in the judges’ score sheet. Awards for the winning contestants will include crowns, titles and cash prizes.
This beauty pageant is a decent competition with no swim suit appearance in any of the categories and is designed to offer the highest standards of integrity. In addition to striving for the highest standards the management will conduct the competition in a fair and balanced manner with judges drawn from a wide range of backgrounds and life experiences.
What are the Areas of Competition?
The Miss TiBaKalanga pageant is a beauty competition open to all women of Bulilima District between the ages of 16 and 25 years. The areas of competition are as follows:
- Jeans and t-shirts (opening round) 0%
- Introduction round – 20%
- Sportswear- 10%
- African traditional attire – 30%
- Talent category – 20%
- Evening wear – 20%
- Finalists’ Questions & Answers
On Stage Questions (Bonus Points) Finalists will respond to a few questions on-stage to earn up to 10 bonus points which will be added to each finalist’s composite score. The question may be taken from information listed on the delegate’s fact sheet. Judging criteria: Articulation, Quality of Response, Beauty, and Personality.
This will be the third annual beauty competition and it already promises to become a hotly contested event. The reigning Queen of TiBaKalanga, Miss Charlotte Ndlovu will be on hand in December to crown the next queen.
For those villages wishing to participate in the competition, as well as businesses or individuals interested in sponsoring a model please contact Ms Mandy Makhiwa +263 78 212 7990 and/or Mr Nkosi Nkomo +263 77 440 5171.
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