A former mushroom and poultry farmer has been crowned Miss Uganda following a major rebranding of the annual beauty pageant, now designed to promote agriculture in the east African nation.
Leah Kalanguka, 23, overcame 19 other finalists after a competition that saw the glamor of the catwalk ditched for an military-sponsored boot camp on a farm, where contestants had to milk cows and work with goats and sheep.
“The youth will love agriculture because it goes hand in hand with beauty. Right now, farming is mostly done by elderly women,” Kalanguka, wearing a gold dress, tiara and a sash, told reporter’s during the awards ceremony late on Saturday.
Photo: AFP
After years of following the more traditional beauty pageant formula, organizers applied the theme of “Promoting agricultural entrepreneurship among the youth,” to the event and partnered with the Ugandan army — which has major business interests in agriculture.
“It is a great direction because the agriculture sector has great opportunity for jobs, so I am simply grateful that it took that direction and I would really love to see it promoted in our country because [agriculture] is the backbone,” Kalanguka said.
Cohost Roger Mugisha, a Ugandan radio presenter, told the audience that Miss Uganda “has to represent Ugandan values.”
“Agriculture is a Ugandan value and we salute that,” he said.
Kalanguka, who has studied computer engineering and science at Makerere University in Kampala, where she lives, said she was “so happy” and “overwhelmed” to be crowned Miss Uganda.
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