Each year, several kinds of beauty contests see the parade of different women on the podiums. Some among them are organized to value the natural beauty of women. An initiative to be encouraged in a context where African values are in the process of being lost.
A new type of beauty contest is being held in Benin and is intended to be a platform that promote the beauty of the African woman in her natural state: Miss crépue Benin. It is indeed a beauty contest like any other, but it has the particularity of highlighting the African woman in her original state. Initiated by the couple Gbessovi, the event has already completed its fourth edition and claims to be a platform for raising awareness on the use of chemical cosmetics and the promotion of natural hair. “I am in this project with my wife Fleurette d’Almeida who makes and sells natural products for skin and hair care,” said Gael Gbessovi, president of the organizing committee. The criteria of natural hair and skin come into play in a society where everything that comes from outside is considered to be the best. The contest therefore fight against skin bleaching and promote natural African hair without relaxers. “True beauty is not necessarily the artificial one, it is above all, what one has to offer,” said the promoter. In fact, if in the distant past, the African woman was recognized by her complexion and her natural hair, the trends have changed dramatically nowadays. The intrinsic African values are then in the process of being lost and we need to bring the African woman to accept herself and love her natural state. “I exhort every young woman to accept and love herself as she is” confides Gaël Gbessovi. Moreover, after four editions, the initiative seems to blossom and the organizers are already pleased with the visible results in the society. “It’s true that there are still some women involved in skin bleaching but I am very happy to see young girls today with their hair and their natural skin without any complex” he says.
The lucky winner of the fourth edition of Miss Curly Benin, Cynthia Ahlin, student in accountability and auditing said she was proud to win the crown of a contest of such magnitude. “It is an honor for me to wear the crown of Miss Curly 2021, to value the natural around me” she exclaims. A dark-skinned woman with natural hair that looks like the Amazons of ancient Dahomey, she intends to impact a greater number of women by organizing training sessions that range from sensitization sessions with dermatologists on the evils of depigmentation to training to design one’s own products to maintain one’s natural hair. And since the approach aims to give back to the African woman her beauty in its natural state, Miss Curly Benin could soon become Miss Curly Africa in so far as the initiative could be extended to all African countries for a common valuation of our habits, customs and consequently an affirmation of our identity. “In the long term we intend to expand the competition to all African countries. We are in contact with the different organizers of the same type of competition and we are thinking of setting up a pan-African competition” concludes the president of the organizing committee Gaël Gbessovi. The message is then sent to all African women with hairy hair and ready to assume in public.
Traduction du Français ”Miss crépue Bénin: Quand le naturel crée la surprise”, Eliane FATCHINA par Salima ALAGBE
