Miss Universe 2018: Africa Makes Strong Showing

Africa’s bid to win the Miss Universe crown back-to-back was on course when the continent’s only finalist in the Top Five, Tamaryn Green from South Africa, made it to the Top Three.

But at the end of the contest in the early hours of Monday, she was beaten to second place and thus missed making history for Africa as having won the crown consecutively for two years.

She would have been crowned by the 2017 winner, Demi-Leigh Nel-Peters, who is also South African, making their country and for that matter Africa a back-to-back winner of the title.

But the all-female panel of judges voted Catriona Magnayon Gray, the queen from The Philippines as the overall best contestant at the spectacular show held at the IMPACT Arena in Bangkok, Thailand.

Undoubtedly, Ms Gray dressed well, talked intelligently and walked impeccably to literally grab the crown from Tamaryn Green, who had earlier taken over from Nel-Peters as Miss Universe South Africa, hoping to also annex the global crown to cement Africa’s hold on the Miss Universe crown.

Ghana’s representative, Akpene Diata Hoggar made a strong showing in the competition, especially in the National Costume Contest, where her outfit depicted the modern-day Yaa Asantewaa, the late iconic queen of the Ashantis.

She could, however not break into the final leg of the competition and that was the story of all the seven other African queens, making South Africa’s Tamaryn Green the only African to be selected into the group of Top 20 finalists and later into the Top Three.

The other African queens were Ana Liliana Aviao, Angola; Nariman Khaled, Egypt; Wabaiya Kariuki. Kenya; Varsha Ragooharsing, Mauritius; Selma Kamaya, Namibia; Aramide Lopez, Nigeria and Melba Shakabozha, Zambia.

They all made Africa proud at all stages of the competition, especially as they told the world about their beautiful countries and their tourism potential.