Martha Noah wins Miss Habesha 2000

By Alemayehu Seife Selassie

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia – A collection of five judges were lined up last Sunday to pick which one of the 25 beauty queens would best represent Ethiopia and the nervous contestants were lined up some stuttering and others with clear confidence. As the nationally accepted trend was taking its tone the show had to start late. But the audiences were waiting patiently to see who would represent their country in the Millennium. The first part of the test set for the contestants was the talent competition. In this regard a beautifully rhyming poem was presented among other traditional music dances, and cotton making and crafts were some other performances also included was an Asian Taekwondo presentation during the Miss Habesha talent show.

The 25 finalists were standing in line to be introduced to the invited special guests for the night. These special guests were two of the top 12 personalities of the millennium for a contribution to the return of the Axum obelisk and being a pioneer in running a promotion and advertisement company Fitawrari Amede Lema and Wubshet Workalemahu. As these personalities were making their compelling speeches some contestants were collapsing on stage.
At the end of the talent presentation however, the finalists were scaled down to ten finalists. The ability to answer questions confidently was taken as criteria for questions the organizers have previously handed out to the contestants for the next round.

Among the five judges some were experienced taking part in several beauty pageants. And none preceded the professional photographer Antonio Fiorente and a beauty therapeutic salon owner Hiwot Amanuel in their proficiency. There were highly anticipated models from the contestants, but the lack of experience has made some to be dropped from contention as the organizers fired their questions.

The traditional dance queen Birhane Birrara, the simply charming Hilina Abiy, the fully-fledged Q & A master Bethlehem Girma and shake a bon bon Meseret Wondwosen were chosen among the top five. But it was the tall and easygoing Martha Noah who claimed the title, preceded by Birhane Birrara and 2nd runner-up Betlehem Girma.
H.A. Advertisement and Promotion and Abyssinia Art Academy were the producers of this show.

One of the organizers Habeniyob Sissay state that he is happy with the way things turn out at the end. “God has helped us a lot, and I could say that he was the organizer of this event. The designers of the night and the celebrity guests made the night worth watching.”
This organizer also added that the collapsing of the models occurred as the result of some tension and improper dieting.

The event was aimed to be a fund raiser for the heart patients and the organizer entails that other projects such as helping the street kids and prostitution were also among the issues the contestants are meant to address in their journey.

The prizes the top five contestants won from the competition were a scholarship by Master film and photography school, lessons from Abyssinia Art Academy and beauty treatment from Diana Beauty Training, sauna bath, gym and massage from Ker Fitness. The organizer stated that they are under negotiations with the Ethiopian Tourism Ministry to allow Martha to serve as the tourism ambassador and her billboard be hanged as she will later on work to promote the city museums and cultural centers in high schools and for the Millennium visitors.

“The winner is the ambassador but the contestants have strong personalities. There are some contestants who are already in progress to establish a fistula hospital”. Habeniyob stated.
The 18-year-old Martha Noah is a freshman student at the Africa Beza College and on her part she said that she would be working on women issues. “I want to show to the people that women are capable of doing many things.” And the target area that she has set on working is on the plight of homeless women.

“The two months’ training that we have had included some psychological and self expression techniques. And that psychology lesson has helped me to win”, she said. “We used to discuss on family issues and how we can solve gender abuses.”

According to this beauty queen she only met the contestants on the competition but she and the others were talking like they knew each other from before. “We were considerate of each other. We have discussed way before the competition that whosoever wins the competition, we should go to the countryside in groups and educate women.”

Among the prizes that Martha is excited to win the two top ones are the Keyboard music lessons from Abyssinia Art Academy and photo editing from Master Photo studio.
After speaking about what made her unique was the ability to answer the questions asked on the spot, she added that, “We are all Miss Habeshas our color is unique and it is just that one has to be picked as Number one.”

Martha gives special thanks to Genet Kebede and Henock Taddese and their collaborators who has given the contestants great encouragement and support.

July 6, 2007