Beauty pageants are a common Saturday night affair in Botswana. In a land where imagination and resourcefulness are responsible for all forms of entertainment, the Botswana have found a unique take on the American beauty pageant, filling the darkest of nights with a ruckus of hollering and booming music. School gymnasiums, hotel banquet rooms and bush bars come alive with Miss \u201cAnything\u201d. <\/p>\n
Girls of all sizes and shapes, with different shades of skin and unique styles of performance \u2013 even some with local hairdos pierced with porcupine quills \u2013 don their best dresses to parade their idea of glamour for the Saturday night revelers.<\/p>\n
Any girl who can afford the $5\u2013$10 to get their hair done and scrape together three themed outfits, is welcome to participate in a pageant. In the glaring afternoon sunlight some of the girls are flashy, some of them completely unadorned. But when the sun falls, the air cools and the sound system, which is rigged together with a mass of live wires, starts blaring Shakira\u2019s \u201cHips Don\u2019t Lie\u201d, each one is completely transformed.<\/p>\n