R Magazine, Ex-TeenArt_Issue 1_Authenticity Ap. 2014 | Page 90

first, teLL us
montrÉaL?

about Who is behind

miss africa

The Miss Africa Montréal event was created
by Mohamed Coulibaly, a young Montréaler
originally from Mali; however, the driving force
behind it is mostly a big family of dynamic
people working to promote African culture for
the past 4 years. The staff consists of many
people from different backgrounds.
“mother africa, Woman of africa”, “betWeen
tradition and modernity”, and “return to our
roots”! hoW Were these themes chosen?
The first theme was obvious to us, since our
mission is to pay homage to women and to the
African continent. After that, the other themes
also became obvious. “Between tradition and
modernity”is a theme which, for us, illustrates
the day to day life of all young African women
living in the West, a world focused on modernity, but who in spite of it all stay attached to
their root values and culture. Before “Return
to our roots”, which speaks to the importance
of knowing one’s history and origins, we had
the theme “When Roots have Wings”, which
illustrates the strength of African roots which,
through the diaspora, extend and influence
the world. These themes were chosen for the
sake of continuity and correlation between the
different editions of the event.
Why “return to our roots”?
Return to our roots was an obvious choice for
the theme of the fourth edition of Miss Africa Montréal, at a time when African youth is
more and more in need of landmarks and role
models in order to emancipate themselves.
We also strongly believe that in order to develop as a person, everyone needs to be anchored to something and know where they
come from.
beyond the physicaL aspect, you host an ‘inteLLectuaL beauty’ contest. is this Where, amongst oth- ativity and commitment. Over several
months, with the help of professioners, miss africa montrÉaL academy comes in?
als, the candidates receive personalized
Beauty, for us, is a whole package; it is as much coaching. The wide range of activities and
a physical quality as an intellectual one, it workshops includes: theatrical expression,
comes as much from the heart as it does from dance, physical training, public speaking,
the soul. The Miss Africa Montréal Academy, social workshops, beauty coaching and
is, in fact, a school dedicated to learning, cre- fashion shows.

TEEN’ART Magazine - Roots