Only Alec Wek, with her gangly, awkward body, round face, decidedly African nose, deep set eyes, and jet black skin, has managed to make people sit up and question what beauty really is. More importantly for us, she has started a debate on African beauty. When Wek came onto the haute couture scene in 1998, her pictures were greeted by a chorus of boos from Africans around the world. The complaint ? According to Greta Motaung, a fashion consultant in Johannesburg, "She just isn't cute. That's it, I'm not one of those black people who are into white images, so there is no deep, internal self-hatred here. The woman is plain ugly." " Ralph Maina, a fashion designer in Nairobi, agrees, "White people decided that this woman will become famous. They looked at her blackness, and felt it would be fashionable to build a cult of fascination around her. So they did. Whether anyone really thinks she is beautiful, is another story." But the experts tell us that Motaung and Maina cannot claim a universal beauty. What is beautiful in one culture is often seen as quite unattractive in another. Africans should know this better than anyone else. For years, the images projected in Western media have reflected notions of beauty that have little to do with this continent. A few darker faces have made their way onto covers; Tyra Banks, Naomi Campbell, Beverly Peele and Iman being the most notable in the last twenty years. However, the standard aesthetic of long slippery hair, a straight nose and high cheekbones has not changed. The Cindy Crawfords and Kate Mosses will always represent the standard against which all others are judged. So it comes as no surprise that more often than not, black models on the catwalk look as though they are white women who have been dipped in bronze. Many say that in this era of talk about the African Renaissance, Africans should stop focusing so much on what happens on the runways of Paris, London and New York, and start focussing on what happens here at home. After all, neither Naomi Campbell, Tyra Banks or Beverly Peele are African, and Iman has effectively left the scene. A focus inward reveals that the last decade of the 20th century saw a burgeoning number of beauty contests in Africa. In the mid to late 1990's Africans seemed to have realized that if you build a stage, put together swimsuits and evening gowns, and invite important people who should have better things to do to be the judges (i.e. Ministers, heads of companies and University Chancellors) you can make a nice profit. Every beauty in the big cities of the continent under the age of 22 seems to have set her sights on being Miss Zambia, Burkina Faso, Gambia, Malawi or wherever she happens to call home. The popularity of this unashamedly sexist past-time, in which women parade in front of judges and usually an entire nation, in order to be told that they are pretty and given a free fridge, a lifetime of groceries and perhaps a car, culminated in the mother of all African beauty pageants: the M-Net Face of Africa competition. In 1997, the television channel, which broadcasts to most African countries, decided to host the competition. According to an M-NET press release, "Face of Africa was conceived by M-Net to create programming that would appeal to its rapidly increasing audience across Africa and to give African models a chance to achieve international success." According to Etienne Heyns, M-Net's Director of Marketing and Development for Africa, "The competition reflects M-Net's commitment to foster a positive image for Africa, create new opportunities and engender a spirit of community in the many African countries where it broadcasts." There are some who would argue that creating new opportunities for some African girls to earn big bucks in America doesn't exactly translate into creating better opportunities for the continent as a whole.