Guernsey represented in Miss Africa GB finals

Wednesday 26 September 2018

A Guernsey resident will be taking to the stage as one of the finalists at the Miss Africa GB contest in London next month, having made it to the last 34.

Blessing Mutamba, 22, first came to the island with her family in 2009 when her mum started working as a nurse here. Since then she has completed a University degree in Falmouth and returned to the island to live. But she's currently splitting her time by commuting back to London regularly for Miss Africa GB coaching ahead of the final.

Miss Mutamba first entered to the competition via an e-mail application and then she was successfully chosen to meet with the judges for a further shortlisting. Since then she has made it to the final event where hundreds of applicants have now been whittled down to just 34 who will be judged in the final.

The Miss Africa Great Britain pageant was founded in 2011 with the sole purpose of giving young African girls born or living in the United Kingdom a strong platform to pursue and achieve their dreams. The winner becomes a goodwill ambassador for Miss Africa, charged with designing and implementing a charity program based on her Pageant Platform.

Pictured: The Miss Africa GB website lists all the entrants, here.

Miss Mutamba has taken part in many beauty pageants and said they are not demeaning to women. She instead thinks they are empowering and help young women develop life skills, often whilst raising money for charity.

"I can relate to that perception from an outsiders point of view as when you attend a pageant or watch you are just watching young girls on the stage in different outfits and do not realise how much work goes into that final day. As part of Miss Africa we have had a lot of training, we have an etiquette coach we talk about the different ways to walk and learn how to present yourself by adding personality to your general demeanour, how to introduce yourself and the nice ways to sit and those are transferable things that you can take into everyday life."

WATCH: Blessing Mutamba shows us how her coach taught her to walk like a queen.

"I have been doing pageants for a few years and the first one I did was in 2009, Miss African Spirit, and I liked it because you make friends along the process and I also like the fact that they boost your confidence a lot as I used to be so shy and really in my shell", she said.

The 34 finalists are all young women who represent 18 African Countries and Miss Mutamba will take to the stage to represent Zimbabwe. She said: "I am now committed to bringing out leadership qualities in young women of African origin both in the UK and abroad. If I were to win the crown, I would like to use this project as a platform to inspire young women in my home country of Zimbabwe as well, so that I can develop enterprise mentorship programmes and initiatives that will help develop life skills within young women, in partnership with charities that are already working in Zimbabwe."

Pictured: Blessing Mutamba posing in her Miss Africa GB finalists sash.

As part of the run up to the pageant, all the contestants are fundraising towards The Lords Heritage Home in Nigeria which houses 86 orphans. The Miss Africa GB pageant is a patron to the orphanage, so each contestant's fundraising efforts are going towards the orphanage. "I am running a charity prize draw with generous donations from local businesses such as Wheadon's Gin, Rosso Restaurant and Town Butchers. I will also be holding an End of Summer party at the end of September to promote my initiative with like minded people and announce the charity prize draw winners," she said.

The final event where Miss Africa GB will be crowned takes place on Saturday 13 October 2018 at the Royal Regency Hall in London and whilst the judging takes place on the night you can vote for your favourite online here missafricagb.com/vote with points added at the final.

Pictured top: Blessing Mutamba posing in her Miss Africa GB finalists sash.