Ethiopia's coffee birthplace to host first ever beauty contest

Ethiopia's coffee birthplace to host first ever beauty contest

Ethiopia's southwestern city of Jimma, commonly known as the birthplace of coffee, is for the first time in its history braced to host a beauty contest, it was learned Sunday. Cleopatra Promotion, a private local company, will organize the beauty pageant on March 24, at Jimma's prestigious Gojeb Minch Hotel. According to a press release sent to international media here, the pageant will include beauty contests for Miss Jimma and Mr. Jimma titles. As criteria for joining the contesting group, girls should be above 1.68 meter and men should be above 1.75 meter, the organizing company said. The contestants should be residents of Jimma but they can have any ethnic origins because only 23 percent of the residents in Jimma are Oromo while the other 77 percent of the society is from the southern region of Ethiopia, the press release said. Around 140 contestants, including students from Jimma University, are registered, the organizing company said, adding that it expects more contestants to get registered. In addition, the event will be transmitted to the public with video projectors in different locations outside Gojeb Minch Hotel. The event will also be transmitted live to 10,000 people. Talking about the judges, Adege Negussie, general manager of Cleopatra Promotion, said the judges are comprised of people, who are working in Jimma University. Responding to some critics of beauty contests who claim that it spoils local culture, Adege said that since it is their first time to organize such an event in Jimma and it being new for the society, they will try to compromise things. "For instance, contestants will not stand with swimming pants in front of the judges. However we also try to maintain the show's international standard without forgetting our tradition." Jimma, with a population of over 90,000, is the commercial center for a coffee-producing region. It has been the capital city of Kaffa province and is situated in about 335 km southwest of the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa. The Kaffa region is Ethiopia's largest producer of coffee, the most important cash crop for Ethiopia and accounts for more than 60 percent of Ethiopia's export earnings and provides the primary source of income for many thousands of small farmers. Coffee has a long and revered history in Ethiopia and is an important component of Ethiopian culture and society. The name coffee is even derived from the "Kaffa" after the discovery of coffee in this region and later became known to the world. Source: Xinhua