Many of us have watched that video of a contestant for the Miss Tourism position in Bungoma County. If you’re like me, the first instinct was to snigger. How DARE she want to be Miss Tourism? How does she have such little self-awareness that she was actually PROUD of her performance?
We laugh when we see her catwalking, because we’re used to seeing people who look a certain way on the catwalk. We watch the video with scorn because she answers the questions in a ‘primitive’ accent. Plant trees, she repeats. Burn cow dung instead of harvesting firewood unsustainably.
We feel superior because her answers are simplistic, to the extent that the officials sitting at the back of the room laugh at her openly, even as they should be professional in their job.
But I demand that you stop and think. Put aside your snark for a second.
Why SHOULDN’T she aspire to be Miss Tourism Bungoma County? Is she a miss? Is she from Bungoma County? Or is it that she doesn’t match up to our idea of what a Miss Tourism should look like?
We fail to see a young lady catwalking with confidence, even if all she’s ever seen of that particular skill is briefly on television. The environment is one of the most important issues in Bungoma County, and she repeats this message endlessly (CEOs pay millions to handlers to teach them to stay on message). This is a woman who says - stand back and watch me, as I go out there and conquer. This is a lady who can ignore the barbs and smirks and sneers and do what she came there to do. This is a woman who sees herself as the embodiment of Bungoma County, and PROUD to put herself forward to represent her county to the rest of the country, and to the world.
So go back and watch that video, and say to yourself - if only we had more like her.
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