 Miss Malaika 2002 Morgan Chetty
Morgan Chitty is a beautiful and intelligent twenty two year old American student of history - majoring in African history. She becomes the second ever Miss Malaika title-holder, taking the reigns from Zimbabwe’s Brita Masalethulini.
The Show:
Harare – 14th December 2002.
The three-hour spectacle held at the Harare International Conference Centre was interspaced with great entertainment from Internationally renowned African artists. Having attended the two held so far, I was mightily impressed with the choreography particularly that in the opening sequence – it was truly out of this world (and as an Afrocentric would say, ‘flyer than Miss World’. Zimbabwe’s hope for the crown was in Nyasha Nyatondo – a nineteen-year-old receptionist from Vic Falls Town, whom many hoped would keep the title in Zimbabwe. Meanwhile Morgan Chitty had been quietly impressive throughout the event and so, even though the crowd were preoccupied by routing for Nyasha, the judges must have picked up on Morgan’s radiance a lot earlier. To her credit, Nyasha made it into the top ten from the twenty-eight contestants but she did not secure a top five position. At that point, the playing field was levelled from the perspective of the remaining five finalists in their quest to win the title and also the hearts of the audience. The last challenge for the final five before the judging panel would pick the ‘angel’ was their response to a question that they would each have to answer about the role of Miss Malaika (the same question would be asked to each finalists).
It was Morgan’s spontaneous response that swayed the crowd in her favour. When MC, Michael Mol, as a prelude to the defining question asked her if she had a word for her parents who had travelled from the USA to support her, she said “Hi… I love you” then in the same breath and tone added, “…help me”, followed by one of those giggles that brings a smile to a face. A moment later, her victory was more or less sealed by her response to the question probing what she envisaged her role would be if she won the title in her capacity as Nepad spokesperson to the youth of Africa. Her reply was very thoughtful, threaded with our popular phrases “sustainable development”, “poverty eradication”. By the time she had completed the answer, in my mind, announcing the winner was simply a matter of formality. Rosinda Manuel of Angola was the runner-up also gave a lovely response in which she highlighted the importance of the winner joining the fight against HIV/AIDS in Africa while Belinda Mokako of the Democratic Republic of Congo who came third also spoke well (Rosinda and Belinda each had aide in translating from English to Portuguese and French respectively in the final Q&A segment).  Left to right: 1st princess Rosindra Manuela Graca from Angola, Morgan Chitty overall winner from the US and Belinda Mokako from the DRC, 2nd princess. Prizes:<br>
Morgan Chitty won trips to Victoria Falls, London, Cape Town, some expensive jewellery and the grand prize - a Mercedes Benz C230 Kompressor.<br>
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Closing thoughts:<br>
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The day I was leaving Harare for home after the event, I was at the Harare International Airport where I spotted two of the contestants who did not make it into the final ten: Innocente Nyanzombe from Burundi and Marie Jose Ndour from Senegal. As I flew back home I pondered on how different their perspective of Africa is to that of Morgan Chitty from Chicago who has to the best of my knowledge never lived in Africa. Morgan Chitty is our current Miss Malaika - an African American who has purposed to be associated with the rebirth and development of Africa. She has a deep understanding of the African situation and my hope is that the interaction through the travels that her reign shall entail, she shall beef up the academic understanding of Africa and so she will learn of other issues facing a Farrai in Zimbabwe, a Mwangala in Zambia, a Kwame in Ghana. We wish her, and all our sisters who took part in Miss Malaika 2002, a bright future. <br>
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