Who will be Miss Guyana African Heritage 2002?
Guyana Chronicle
August 29, 2002

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WHO will succeed reigning queen, Sheneze Galloway, as the 2002 Miss Guyana African Heritage?

Is it the svelte Marissa Primo, the trained cosmetologist cum dance instructor turned 'talk-show host', whose rubber-waisted older brother, Jumo, is now the toast of the Caribbean?

Or is it the buxom Kenisha Headley, the aspiring young lawyer from La Grange, West Bank Demerara, who brazenly thumbed her nose at her detractors during the annual All-night Vigil and Libation ceremony at the Public Buildings on Emancipation eve, when the girls were first introduced to the public?

Find out Sunday when the nine delegates vying for the coveted title this year take to the stage at the National Cultural Centre, Georgetown for a night of reckoning, as have their predecessors for the last seven consecutive years.

According to co-host, Mr. Lorrie Alexander, unlike in the past, when things got under way at around 20:00 hrs, this year will be different in that the event will start an hour earlier so as "to ensure that the evening ends with enough time for the next day's beginning of the new school year".

He says the girls have been in training for the past two months, and are scheduled to make four appearances on pageant night, the first of which will see them doing an 'Opening Dance'.

Alexander said that traditionally, the `Opening Dance' is a spirited affair and one of the many highlights of the evening. Participating in the item this year will be five guest models, among them Zimbabwean, Spiwe Bye, who is currently pursuing studies at the University of Guyana (UG).

The three other appearances of the delegates will be confined to the Casual Wear, Talent Piece and Evening Gown segments of the pageant, respectively.

The seven other beauties in the line-up this year are 20-year-old Candace Wickham, who is studying Pharmacy at UG; Claudette Moore, 21, who teaches at Tutorial High School; Fidela Marcus, the baby of the pageant who turned 18 last Friday; Celeste Mullin, 22, who currently teaches at North Georgetown Secondary but has her sights set on becoming a psychologist; 19-year-old Shyon Jones, a budding graphic artist; Collette Newland, 22, who teaches Spanish at West Demerara Secondary; and 24-year-old dance instructor, Donette Brotherson.

Coming to participate in the event this year are the winner and first and second runners-up in this year's Miss Alida pageant, the equivalent of our Miss African Heritage contest held annually in neighbouring Suriname, and reigning Pan African Cultural Queen, Natalie Cooper of Trinidad and Tobago.