Hail our golden queen, Thata Kenosi

Miss Botswana 2016, Thata Kenosi finds inspiration from William Shakespeare’s quote; “Some people are born great, others achieve greatness and others have greatness thrust upon them.”

And when she thinks about that, a lot has happened to her and come to think of it, “right now I believe that greatness was indeed thrust upon me and I am going to use it,” she says proudly. It has been a taxing 72 hours for the 21-year old.

The second born in a family of four siblings and Moshupa native has been juggling media interviews, meeting sponsors and smiling through congratulatory messages from well wishers who believe in her capability as the queen who can bring home the much sought after Miss World crown. And it has not been easy at all.

While some individuals would have crumbled due to the mounting pressure that she is currently under, particularly public scrutiny and negative reports, it has not been the case for Thata. On Friday evening, when she was named the most beautiful woman in Botswana, the soft-spoken poetic queen was still trying to process the news, and her voice was barely audible.

During her interview with The Midweek Sun on Tuesday afternoon, it was evident that the negative reports have done very little to dent her spirits. She held her head high and spoke like a winner. She was flanked by her 1st and 2nd princesses - Bonnie Kamona and Phatsimo Baoagi respectively.

And when she talks, her voice projects, you get to appreciate that you are in the presence of someone who holds the future of the country in her hands. She is very upbeat, and even amidst everything else, she is casting her sight on bigger things. If the negative reports might be affecting her in any way, she is not showing any signs of stress, and she could possibly be dealing with everything far away from the glaring eyes of the public. In fact, she is wearing her heart on her sleeve when it comes to her beloved country and the dreams that she has for the youth of this country.

“I am actually handling it very well. The negativity is not affecting me in the sense that my emotions are still intact. I am still happy and excited that I was crowned the 50th queen. At this point I just want to focus on my project, I want to focus on being a better person and being the Thata that my family and friends would be proud to have as a representative and ambassador of the Miss Botswana brand,” she says confidently. If she was to give someone who was in her shoes right now a pep talk, she would advise them to be strong and to keep their head up.

“At the end of the day, none of the controversy and none of the rumours and all the negative rumours will help them develop and be a better person,” she says. “You have to be strong. You have to be bold and you have to have a backbone especially when you are going through a competition,” she adds.
On her response to a question on the night, she says she was put off by the boos that immediately followed her mention of ESP. But she knows what she had wanted to say and had it not been for the nervousness that followed, she would have expressed herself better.

For her Beauty with a Purpose project, she is intending to use Poatry (derived from Poetry and Art) and wants to use poetry in its aesthetic form as an expressive tool be it verbal or written form for adolescents aged between 13 and 21 years who suffer from mental and emotional conditions that are not deemed chronic, such as depression, anxiety, bodily disorders and conditions that many households do not deem as a disease.

“So by using poetry in that form, it will be used as a therapeutic coping mechanism for the adolescents who are going through daily challenges,” she explains. She is intending to work with Maitisong Theatre and BOSASNET (who will provide her with a list of clients from her target audience who are using substances as a way of coping with their day to day challenges) while Maitisong will give her the space.

With Botswana celebrating 50 years of democracy, she says the country needs to pride itself in the long way it has come. Talking about her strength she explains it has to be her voice, speaking eloquently, fluent in Japanese, intelligent and cultured as well as caring and passionate about the things that she ventures in and is good at writing, reading, interpretation and poetry. She believes that each and every single contestant had attributes that made them stand out, and that she is overjoyed to have the support of Baoagi and Kamona.  

“I believe that I gained an upper hand because my project is derived from my talent, something that I am passionate about, something that I strategically came up with and saw as a solution to a problem that currently exists,” she notes.

She says that a lot can still be done in order to address the worrisome issues of other health conditions and not only chronic ones. Flourishing in volleyball the athletic queen explains that she was in the Varsity team for three years and even went on to compete with other schools.

For someone of her physique, Kenosi who mostly schooled in Japan where she resided, she eats in her spare time, and every once in a while she rewards herself by eating a waffle. But what do the 1st and 2nd princesses have to say about what is currently going on. The duo is very proud with the queen and how she is handling everything.

“I would have done the same thing. Just ignore the negative comments and take the ones that you can actually use in order to better yourself for the Miss World competition,” says Baoagi. She also adds that she has faith in the capabilities of Kenosi, and that she can bring home the crown.

Kamona advises the queen never to let anybody shake her or pull her down. “We have to come together as women, and build her, instead of breaking her, we have to encourage her to do more,” she says.

“For me I would do exactly what she is doing, because I believe that everything that happens is God’s will and that he wouldn’t give you anything that you can’t handle,” advises Kamona.