Biggy Matofotofo was never about Sele – Mbowa

rebranded to take a regional scope that will see it being held in several countries in the region. Entertainment Editor Ruth Butaumocho (RB) speaks to the founder and director of the Miss Biggy Matofotofo, Lwazi Mbowa (LM), about the rebranded product.
RB: Can you tell us about yourself Lwazi?
LM: I grew up in Bulawayo, Luveve, where I attended both primary and secondary education. I then did a course on tour guiding, and I am actually a tour guide by profession. I am married and have two kids. I am proud to say that my dad, who has often instilled good teachings in me, inspires me. Since I was a kid, he used to tell me that the first wisdom is to fear and respect God.
When I started the beauty pageant, he told me not to put myself up, but I should wait for people to do that.
RB: How did you come up with the concept of Miss Biggy Matofotofo?
LM: It has always been my passion to assist big people and as you can see I am big myself. At one time I did not have confidence because I was big and people would often look at me in awe. I would also meet big women who were experiencing similar problems. It then dawned on me that I needed to do something for big women and that is when I came up with the idea of a beauty pageant to cater for big women. I approached Sarah Mpofu for advice and told her that I wanted to embark on a pageant for big women. Mpofu had held a similar event before and obviously had an idea on how to take up the project.
RB: But there have been media reports in which Sarah Mpofu claims that you stole her idea?
LM: I am hearing it from you for the first time dear. It will be so wrong for people to think that I stole Mpofu’s idea. Yes, I am not disputing that she once held a similar event and dropped it for years until I decided to revive the idea. If Lobels and Baker’s Inn are making bread who then should be accused of stealing someone’s idea of making bread and by whom?
The beauty pageant that we have been running is not a Western concept like the one she held and it is premised on traditional concepts where our dressing, accessories and our prizes are purely traditional. I am sure you know that we give out goats and cows as prizes and instead of presenting the models with a bouquet of flowers we give them sweeping brooms, beads and other traditional artifacts.
RB: So if you guys had the same concept, why did you not merge to come up with one brand?
LM: There are so many beauty pageants targeting slim women and what is wrong in having many pageants targeting the fuller figure?
RB: It appears that the Miss Biggy-Matofotofo is only concentrated in Bulawayo and Harare. Does that mean there are no big and beautiful women in other towns and cities?
LM: We are actually doing our auditions throughout the country and even our final event reflects the national picture. Over the years, we have done our auditions in remote parts of the country, to ensure that we involve everyone who meets our criteria.
RB: Correct me if I am wrong, but Lwazi, Miss Biggy-Matofotofo is one pageant that has not contributed meaningfully to charitable initiatives, and is remembered for popularising the sele dance. What is your take on that one?
LM: On that one, I will correct you Ruth. You have asked me that question several times and I have often explained that when we started the concept, and even up to now, it has not been easy to get sponsorship for our activities and at times we had to bankroll some of the activities with our own money.
And that alone has made it difficult to initiate a number of projects for charity. We will keep trying to assist communities whenever we can. I wish to reiterate that Biggy-Matofotofo was never about Sele. One of our participants made a personal decision to dance Sele after she had been empowered by the beauty pageant, and because of the furore that was created after that, we have now made it into a rule that none of our girls should dance in public for whatever reason.
RB: There are also reports that you still haven’t paid prizes of previous Matofotofo winners. What is the correct position?
LM: There is only girl, whom we did not pay her prize because she breached her contract and she is no longer one of us. We remain committed to the pageant and as such we will not be dragged into controversy for whatever reason.
RB: Last month you rebranded the beauty pageant and is now known as Miss True African Queen. What brought about the need to rebrand?
LM: It was after the realisation that we needed to broaden our concept and give it a regional flair. We have since gone regional and we want to involve as many countries as possible and we are looking at creating synergies between countries in a bid to promote our big women. If you look at our original name “Matofotofo”, it described our bodies as big women, and later it more or less became derogatory. People were also not taking it seriously, hence we could not embrace it in our new concept and that is why we had to drop it completely.
RB: What are you hoping to achieve?
LM: We want to continue instilling confidence in big women and market them to the outside world. There are a lot of opportunities for big women in the region and elsewhere. There is so much that big women can do to empower themselves and we want to assist them to achieve their dreams and aspirations.
RB: What role do you think the corporate world should play in promoting beauty pageants with a purpose?
LM: The corporate world should assist the beauty and modelling industry, which I believe is crucial in marketing the country to the outside world. Over the years, we have seen our models, who have won different local beauty pageants represented becoming ambassadors of Zimbabwe in a big way. And that alone will translate into big business opportunities for our people in the long run.
RB: Have you started provincial preliminaries as yet?
LM: We are starting the preliminaries on June 3 and will go around the country scouting for the big women until our national event to be held sometime in October. I am, however, appealing to both individuals and the corporate world to support our cause and assist big women to achieve their dreams and aspirations.
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