LL crowns another Florence Banda-LL Miss True African Queen

ALBERT SHARRA

In a glamorous, historical and stunning event, Miss True African Queen beauty pageant formerly known as Miss Matofotofo on Friday night crowned Florence Banda the 2011 Miss True African Queen Lilongwe at the Sunbird Capital hotel Marquee.

As if names matter most in this beauty pageant, Florence has taken over the crown from the current pageant’s national queen whose name is also Florence Banda. The former queen was serving two crowns for the capital city and national.

Dubbed the country’s only best beauty pageant with Malawi’s traditional reflection, the pageant attracted nine beautiful queens from across the city. The group had four chances to convince a panel of six well experienced judges in different parades to book their ticket into the last five and finally in top three.

The race began with an introduction parade then casual, formal, traditional and smart traditional wears. Most interesting and attractive parade that also gave judges a tough time to identify the best five was the smart traditional one. To almost everyone’s satisfaction, the queens displayed beautiful attires decorated with multi-coloured beads and chilundu cloth that really depicted the real life of a true Malawian lady. It had to take the judges almost an hour to settle for the five and they settled for Leah Banda, Constance Kachoka, Florence Banda, Zainab Chimphanje, Getrude Masamba, Halyma Assad Khan and Chikumbutso Sinayi.

However, after the final session of the event which was oral interviews, 34 year-old Florence Banda won the crown which is in its second year now since it was found by Lwazi Mbowa. Leah Banda was crowned the first princess with Constance Kachoka coming out second princess.

The princess received a goat , K10 000, a voucher to plate hair at Aloevera saloon each while Florence had a top up of a voucher to spend 3 nights at Sunbird hotel and K30 000 cash.

The event which was also graced by former Big Brother Africa representative Hazel Warren also crowned Violet Gwaligwali as Miss Personality with Florence making it a double by winning the Miss Beautiful smile Crown.

The all time smiling lady was short of words after the event saying she never expected to win the crown.

“It is a miracle to me, I never expected to win the crown being my first time to contest in the event. But all in all, I am happy to serve the office and i will utilize the crown to help me reach the needy with various support and reach the big mamas with the message that Matofotofo is beautiful, lets celebrate about it,” said Florence an employee at Mota Engil in Lilongwe.

In her speech midway the event, the outgoing Miss True African queen Lilongwe who is also country director for the pageant Florence, asked companies and the business sector to invest more in the pageant saying it has the potential to transform the starving tourism sector.

“Let us all support the pageant because it is the only that is representing what has for long been seen as a no beautiful sample of African women. I believe, done well, this will sell the nation and uplift our tourism standard,” she said while applauding main sponsors Darling International.

Minister of Tourism, Wildlife and Culture Daniel Liwimbi who was also guest of honour at the event hailed the ladies for the event saying the pageant is uplifting the flag of Malawi while developing the tourism industry.

According to the pageant’s country director, the next event will be to crown Miss Blantyre in February and Miss Mzuzu pageant will follow. Three queens from each region will batte out at the national finals with the winners going for the continental pageant.

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Wendy dances with big mamas in LL

ALBERT SHARRA

In a one time opportunity, big mamas in Lilongwe last Friday night deserted their idleness which they attribute to huge scale of their bodies to dance with self acclaimed dance hall queen Wendy Harawa at the Sunbird Capital hotel marquee during the crowning event of the Miss True African Queen Lilongwe.

Obviously, it is not easy for a big mama popularly known as Matofotofo to match and survive in a purely reggae concert, but the different happened at the venue as the ladies jumped on stage in the last hour of  the show and danced stunningly to local raggea music with Harawa.

It was Lucius Banda’s tracks which Harawa sings most in her shows, Dziko lathu and Amikayele that stole the show during the evening. The culmination of the dance reached when she performed her popular track Toto Ndakana sending the highly filled marquee into deep choruses and serious jiving with other doing it while on their seats.

Minister of Tourism Wildlife and Culture Daniel Liwimbi and some male patrons could not control their agitating bodies but join the ladies in the dance floor that was lead by founder of the Miss True African Queen beauty pageant Lwazi Mbowa and the pageant’s national queen Florence Banda. Even the former Big Brother Representative Hazel Warren could not ignore the moment, for a number of times was seen shaking her body while on her seat.

The hall went weird with some sorts of tension as the fans clapped hands to Liwimbi who swayed the fans with the popular old generation dancing styles.

Speaking in random interviews after the dance, some of the ladies said the opportunity comes once in a time and so wanted to utilize it.

“This was a great night for us and it has displayed that we are not just weak as anyone thinks. We can dance like anyone and this should send a message to artist that we also want special shows like this where we can just dance,” said one of them Lillian Muwuku.

Harawa also nodded to the request saying the big mamas really need a special show.  ”The show was great beyond my expectation and I promise to make them my priority in my career because I am also a Matofotofo and so need to keep them in the entertainment boiling pot,” she said.

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