Anicia sets eyes on Miss World
Miss World Africa, Lesego Chombo has crowned her successor. The new queen happens to be the twenty-two-year-old, Anicia Gaothuse. The Tutume girl is going on a new adventure at a time when Batswana are invested in pageantry.
The stakes are high for the new queen. Her reign comes at a time when Botswana has been doing extremely well at the Miss World international platform. And many are waiting to see what this new gem has in store for them. Like most of the queens before her, as early as it is to tell what this diamond has in the bag, most are waiting to see her evolve into a queen who is worthy to represent the powerhouse that is Botswana at the Miss World grand stage. Gaothuse is not a newcomer to pageantry, having previously been crowned Miss Teen International Africa 2019, and has also competed in Little Miss District.
Grounded and possessing a rich background filled with the right upbringing and mostly guided by her grandmother, back in her home village of Tutume, the once shy Miss Botswana is taking the qualities and lessons learnt from her upbringing on her Miss Botswana journey. And it is these qualities which include seeing her grandmother selflessly serve her community at the Clinic, and inspiring her to be a game changer in her community. Earlier this week, she embarked on a media tour to share her dream with Batswana through the media.
A unifier of note, she wants to bring the country together as well as tap into the vast landscape of the beauty industry to sell and promote Botswana. Besides her unifier quality, one thing that she wants the nation to step away from is to compare her with her predecessors. Borrowing the words of Chombo, she explains that everyone has their own footprints to make. Everyone also has their own shoe size, and it will be impossible to fill anyone’s shoe. “We all wear different sizes, I might be a size three while the other person is a size seven,” she explains. Nkalanga from Tutume, she explains that she is studying CIPS (Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply at the Gaborone College of Law).
This particular course appealed to her, as she has generally been interested in logistics, particularly with imports and exports of various goods within this multi-billion-pula industry, and now with her passion for the evolving beauty industry, it is the right fit for her. At a time when pageantry is going through an exciting renaissance, she explains that when she entered her first pageant, she thought that was only about being beautiful. But along the way, she learnt that it was also about serving her community, and bringing a shift of change. “It grew me to understand that I am not speaking for myself but also for other people. I grew up as a shy person, and I generally grew as a person,” she says. She further says that as she studied the pageantry more, she observed that pageantry is the best fit for selling the country, and how there is more into the pageant world, and selling the diverse products offering of Botswana such as designers, tourism and so much more. Regarding her project, she says that when she was doing Form 2, she started her first project which was centred around drug and substance abuse. This project was motivated by what she saw happening in her school, where her peers were into drugs and substances.
“In my class, I had classmates who were using drugs. And I realised that I would make an impact since I was a student, and researched ways to help them overcome this obstacle,” she notes adding that when she did Form 3, she took a break from the project as she needed to focus on her studies. During her Miss Teen reign, she observed how Gender Based Violence was rampant. Males were also abused, but unable to report to the authorities due to fears of what society would say. "As males, it was believed at the time that you could not report certain things,” she notes. When she was doing her Form 5, which was followed by Covid-19 pandemic, she could not keep up. "I took a break to introspect and find something that I was committed to.
And this is when I noticed that there was something missing in my life. Having grown up with my grandmother and seeing her level of dedication in serving the community, I realised that this was something that was missing in my life, that is why I am advocating for Primary Health care,” she notes. She also adds that she wants to empower the nation about the basic little things such as First Aid, and its importance. “When someone collapses, what do you do? Or when someone is involved in a car accident, what do you do? Batswana like to help others, so I want to equip them with the right skills,” she says. The project started last year. The project dubbed, Lights, sees her working with Kgalalelo Dental Clinic on the importance of Oral hygiene, Life Flat Rescue, where they teach the public about various skills that can save a life such as CPR, and how they can help others when they are in need.
This is partially the reason she entered Miss Botswana as she wants to make an impact on a larger scale. She is open to the possibility of perhaps finding another alternative Beauty with a Purpose project that might have a bigger impact, and will be influenced by what society needs the most. But right now, the Lights project is what lights up her eyes, and heart. She is also looking forward to taking the project to all corners of Botswana. So, what makes her a good Miss Botswana queen, she explains that it is simply because she unites people.
She also says that the beauty industry is one of the ways that she is continuing to unite people such as designers, hair, make-up, and so forth. “This is how I am uniting people not just for Botswana but for the world to see us,” she notes, adding that the world must see the talent which is abundant in Botswana. "As much as Batswana are supporting me, I want them to support each and every local business,” she says. And as for the famous question of why she was picked as the winner, she says that she believes that each and everyone of the ladies who were in the finale are incredible.
Sebaga Manyapetsa, her second princess had a beautiful project, and it inspired her. “But it is only one crown,” says Gaothuse. Her opinion regarding what happened during the Miss World finale, and the cyber bullying that followed is that it is not easy to control people particularly in a country with free speech. But she wants to encourage them to spread love and be kind. "I can encourage them to improve the way they respond to certain issues. If this was to happen during her Miss World journey, she says that she will try to guide them to do better."