If you are planning a trip to Africa, make sure to pay a visit to at least one of these 10 countries with the most beautiful women in Africa.
The fact that some of the most beautiful women in the world come from Africa isn’t a secret, but for a long time, pretty girls from that continent were kept away from the world’s stage, due to unstable political climate, seemingly endless wars, and traditional culture prevalent in most African countries. Only in the last few decades did they start to make regular appearances on beauty pageants, catwalks, and movies screens. The only country that was an exception was South Africa, which is why it is placed high on our list of countries with the most beautiful women in Africa. You will have to read on to see exactly where.
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With Africa being so diverse, pinpoint beauty standards is next to impossible. Still, regardless of how hard it is to define it, beauty is easy to recognize and girls from Africa have plenty of it. Black women have been recognized for their beauty and many of them aren’t born in Africa. Naomi Campbell is the first that comes to mind when talking about beautiful black women and she is from the United Kingdom and one of the original supermodels. Halle Berrie, Whitney Houston, Keke Palmer, Rihanna, Vanessa Williams, Beyonce, are just a few of the most beautiful black women not from Africa and as such, outside of the scope of this article.
Even if we eliminate them, there isn’t any shortage of beautiful African girls. The problem is coming up with a definite methodology to rank countries that have the most beautiful ones.
In order to avoid bias and personal tastes, we used the opinions of experts to rank the countries. We went over the winners of Big Four beauty contests (Miss World, Miss Universe, Miss Earth, and Miss International) and awarded points to each country for every title won. Unfortunately, there aren’t many winners from Africa, in fact, Miss International has never been won by a girl from an African country. This wasn’t the problem when we compiled our list of Countries with The Most Beautiful Women in Asia. So, we had to find more sources and we settled on Miss Heritage, one of the youngest beauty pageants in the world, but a highly respected one. Here we awarded points for any of the first four places (winner and three runner ups). Finally, we included Miss Model of the World and its winners. Here are the results of our search for the countries with the most beautiful women in Africa!
10. Botswana
Botswana is in the similar situation as Rwanda, With Oweditse Gofadne Phirinyane as 3rd runner-up in Miss Heritage 2015 and Katlego Gaotsenelelwe finishing as 2nd Runner-up in 2016, Botswana qualified for the 10th place on our list.
9. Rwanda
In Miss Heritage 2015, Joanna Keza Bagwire was declared 3rd Runner-up and in the same competition in 2016 Jane Mutoni was a runner up. No titles and two runners up aren’t that great of a result, but enough to qualify for our list and be slightly better than Botswana. Besides, considering bloody and violent past of the country, it is great to see Rwanda appear on lists like this one, with more pleasant topics than war and genocide.
8. Ghana
Ghana is the first country on our list of countries with the most beautiful women in Africa with an actual title at an international beauty pageant. In 2014 Miss Heritage, Zina Asiedu won Miss Heritage Africa title, also dubbed the Continental Queen title and the right to be addressed as Queen Zina, queen of Africa. As titles go, one could do a lot worse than that. Ms. Asiedu has been heavily involved in a campaign that aimed to raise awareness of Ebola virus and gather funds for researching a cure.
7. Ivory Coast
Ivory Coast, one of the entries on our list of countries with the most beautiful women in Africa, also has only one title, won by Awa Geremaya Sanoko in Miss Model of the World in 2015. Awa was the first, and so far, the only, girl from Africa to win this prestigious competition in its 28 years of existence. Awa has already secured several modeling contracts and is going to have a great career as a fashion model. In a country torn by a civil war, the news of her win made for some desperately needed positive story. Hopefully, the people of Ivory Coast will have more such news in the future.
6. Kenya
In 2002, the title of Miss Earth was won by Džejla Glavović, a beautiful Bosnian. Unfortunately for Ms. Glavović, she failed in performing her duties stipulated in the contract and Miss Earth organization, in its only second year of existence, decided to drop the hammer on her and she was stripped of her title. Bad news for Bosnia, but great for Kenya, whose Winfred Omwakwe was the first runner up and ended up with the title of Miss Earth 2002. Anyway, that’s the story of how Kenya got to the 6th place among the countries with the most beautiful women in Africa.
5. Namibia
Miss Universe is the competition that has been won by African girls the most, four times to be exact. Namibia’s Michelle McLean won the title in 1992. When she won the title of Miss Namibia, that sent her to the Miss Universe global pageant, the judges came under heavy fire from several sides for their decision to crown a white girl. The critics cited Namibia’s colonial past and the need to promote native girls over descendants of the former colonial masters. While this may be true, it is always a bad move to involve politics into any contests and beauty pageants aren’t exempted. Nevertheless, Michelle wore the title with dignity and has been involved in many charity projects in her home country, most of them made possible by her title.
4. Botswana
At 4th spot on our list of countries with the most beautiful women in Africa, we have Botswana that is yet another country that only has one Miss Universe title, won by Mpule Kwelagobe in 1999. She was the first Miss Botswana to take part in Miss Universe competition, which only makes her win more significant. Miss Kwelagobe enrolled to Columbia University after winning the title, making her the firs Miss University to enroll to an Ivy League school. The combination of beauty and intelligence allowed her to be named United Nations Goodwill Ambassador, focusing on youth and AIDS. Her work brought her the International Association of Physicians in AIDS Care’s award, alongside European commissioner Lieve Fransen.
3. Angola
Angola’s Leila Lopes won Miss Universe crown in 2011, the most recent win for a country in Africa in that competition. Ms. Lopes’ ticket to Miss Angola and ultimately Miss Universe was the title of Miss Angola UK, which she won while studying in the United Kingdom. Her win was marred by allegations of illegal entry to Miss Angola UK competition, which were later denied by both Miss Lopes and Miss Universe organization. She completed her tour as Miss Universe queen and have performed her duties admirably. Hopefully, we will see more Angolan girls in that role soon.
2. Nigeria
Agbani Darego is the first native African girl (and only third girl from Africa at the time) to win the most prestigious beauty pageant on the planet, Miss World. She did it in 2002 and went on to have a highly successful modeling career, representing L’Oréal (the second black model ever to win the contract), Dior, Avon, and many other famous brands. She was featured in almost every fashion magazine, including Elle and Cosmopolitan.
1. South Africa
And the top spot among countries with the most beautiful women in Africa goes to South Africa. Like we mentioned, South Africa is the country that has been sending its girls to beauty pageants long before any other on the continent, but to say that that is the only reason for its placement would be unfair to beautiful women of the Rainbow Nation. The first Miss World for South Africa was won by Penelope Anne Coelen in 1958. In 1974 Anneline Kriel got hold of the crown after the original winner, Helen Morgan from the UK, resigned. In 2014, Rolene Strauss was crowned Miss World. South Africa also has one Miss Universe title, won by Margaret Gardiner in 1978. In 2014 in Miss Heritage, Kgomotso Caroline Angel Pilane was awarded third runner up, but next year the crown went to South Africa when Ziphozinhle Ntlanganiso won the title. With all these titles, it is easy to see why Soth African women are praised for their beauty.
