22-year-old Lukando Nalungwe is the 2010 M-Net Face of Africa

22-year-old Zambian Lukando Nalungwe was catapulted into the fashion world elites after she emerged the winner of the M-Net Face of Africa crown at a colourful event that was held at the Eko Exhibition Centre in Lagos Nigeria.

She grew up as a tomboy preferring to play basketball with boys rather than spend an evening with the girls trying on different clothes and makeup. However on Saturday, 22-year-old Zambian Lukando Nalungwe was catapulted into the fashion world elites after she emerged the winner of the M-Net Face of Africa crown at a colourful event that was held at the Eko Exhibition Centre in Lagos Nigeria.

The star-studded event had the 10 finalists pitting themselves against each other for the coveted prize of being crowned this year’s Face of Africa, a title that came with a $50,000 cash prize among other goodies. The show hosted by Fareed Khimani of the Studio 53 fame and the 2005 FOA winner Kaone Kario, and telecast live on M-Net was quite nerve racking for the wannabe models.

From the original 10 girls that strutted on the runaway, only Ernania from Mozambique, Zimbabwean Rosanna Hall and Zambian Lukando were the remaining three girls standing. After a short deliberation from the judges, model Oluchi Onweagba announced the winner to the relief of Lukando who immediately broke into tears.

During the press conference after the event, Lukando revealed that she had made several attempts to get to the competition, each time being denied in the audition stages either due to height issues, or in one case, cancelling her trip to the auditions because her young brother had suddenly passed away.

Lukando not only walked away with $50,000 but a three year modelling contract with leading model agency O Models owned by first Face of Africa winner Oluchi. Her first taste on the international modelling stage is this Saturday at the New York Fashion Week.

By ROBERT KALUMBA