Miss Universe 2022: Meet the African beauty queens repping Africa

The 71st Miss Universe competition will be held in New Orleans, Louisiana on Saturday, January 14, 2023. The international event will be hosted at the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.

The highly anticipated event will feature almost 90 women from around the globe vying for the job of Miss Universe, through the process of personal statements, in depth interviews and various categories including evening gown & swimwear. The evening will culminate with the 70th Miss Universe, Harnaaz Sandhu, who brought the title back to India for the first time in twenty-one years, crowning her successor.

This year’s competition will be hosted by Jeannie Mai and Miss Universe 2012, Olivia Culpo.

Meet the contestants representing the African continent and their homelands.

Ghana – Engracia Afua K. Mofuman

Engracia Afua K. Mofuman is a professional model and a French, English, Spanish, and Portuguese translator. The 27 year holds a master’s degree in International Relations. She created the #PowerInThePencil Project, a drive aimed at teaching illiterate children in Ghana how to read and write, the most basic form of education.

Nigeria – Hannah Iribhogbe

Hannah Iribhogbe is a 21 year old and a student at North Lake college in Dallas, Texas, studying Business Management. She is also the founder of The Montana Initiative, an organization that works to feed 10 million children all over Africa. Hannah is very passionate about charity, community service, youth involvement, and women’s empowerment.

Angola –  Swelia Da Silva Antonio

Swelia Da Silva Antonio is the co-founder of Better Tomorrow Africa, BTA, an association aimed at ameliorating peoples living standards through need-based education and providing practical tools for sustainable and generational benefits. She became the first in her family to graduate with a Master of Science degree in a third language.

South Africa – Ndavi Nokeri

Ndavi Nokeri was crowned Miss Universe South Africa in August 2022. She has a degree in BCom Investment Management from the University of Pretoria. Ndavi Nokeri is passionate about advocating for equal educational opportunities for all and devoting her reign to increasing this awareness through a campaign called Ed-Unite.

Namibia – Cassia Sharpley

Cassia Sharpley is a vibrant, multi-facetted young woman with 17 years of experience in the performing arts as a dancer, singer, actor, model, musician, and songwriter. Her passion also lies in the medical field as a paramedic practitioner. She is the founder and owner of the Honeycomb Haven Foundation Project which advocates for poverty alleviation within the 7de Laan Constituency in Windhoek Namibia.

Cameroon – Mouketey Lynette Monalisa Jelly

Mouketey Lynette Monalisa Jelly is a youth empowerment advocate and founder of the Miss Monalisa Charity Foundation, a non-profit organization that helps change the lives of disadvantaged children and young people.

Seychelles – Gabriella Gonthier

Gabriella Gonthier was born in Sydney, Australia but raised in the exquisite archipelago of the Seychelles Islands, specifically on Mahe. She is a graduate of the University of London with a Bachelor’s in Business Administration and a specialization in International Business. The beauty queen is dedicated to mental health and suicide prevention, which she advocates through the project Semicolon, aimed at advocating for people struggling with mental health to be treated with thoughtfulness and understanding.

Mauritius – Alexandrine Belle-etoile

Alexandrine Belle-Etoile holds a degree in Fine Arts and currently teaches the Arts and French in a private primary school. At 25 years old, Belle-Etoile has modeled professional with several big brands in Mauritius. It is her dream to create a school for the arts open to all ages and she is determined to promote this project during her year as the title holder for Mauritius.

Equatorial Guinea – Alba Isabel Obama Moliko

Alba Isabel Obama Moliko is a 21-year-old law student and also the director and a model monitor of the television program “Equatorial Guinea Top Model.” She was Miss Supranational Equatorial Guinea in 2019 in which she also won a Supra model award from Africa. She also participated in the international African textile show where she also took home the top model of Africa award.