Ghana Save The World

Loyola grad Agnes Ntow tells Closer Look why she wants to be Miss Ghana.

Agnes Ntow did not grow up playing dress up and wearing tiaras. She has never been in a beauty pageant. In fact, until a couple of years ago, she had never heard of Miss Africa USA. So how did she end up on an eastbound plane, heading to Atlanta to represent Ghana in the Miss Africa USA semi-finals? She Googled it.

"I didn't know anything about pageants, and I knew there was a Miss America," said Ntow, 22. "So my sophomore year, I searched Miss Africa, and here I am."

Ntow (right) stands next to Nelly Mbambo, a representative of Malawi, at the Miss Africa USA 2010 Semi-Finals in Atlanta. Photo courtesy of Agnes Ntow. 

Agnes Ntow graduated from Loyola in August 2009 with degrees in communications and black world studies. Currently, she is in Atlanta giving speeches, answering questions, attending balls and making proposals in hopes of making it to the Miss Africa 2010 finals in July. She has spent months preparing, being fitted for dresses, writing speeches and making trips to Kinko's in order to print endless copies of pageant speeches and paperwork.

"You see this?" she said, holding up a scribble-filled steno pad that contains her preparation notes and rough drafts. "This is not a competition where you can just sit and look pretty. They're gonna pick your brain and see why you want to do this and how much you want it. You just have to be prepared with answers."

The pageant, which is for first generation or African-born women in the U.S., is focused on beauty for humanity. According to the pageant's official Web site, its goal is to project a positive image of Africa and advocate for the needy, which is what interested Ntow.

The first member of her family to be born in America, Ntow still considers herself Ghanian. When she was two, her family moved back to Accra, the capital city of Ghana, for four years. She started her schooling there. "To me, it was home,"she said on her experience growing up there.

According to Ntow, Accra is similar to the cities in the U.S. — bustling, lively and developed. But villages like Kpando — where her parents grew up — are underdeveloped. Ntow's main priority is to help bring growth to these areas. 
Ntow says that her parents came to the U.S. looking for a better life, but debates whether or not they are truly happier here. "When you're down there, you think, ‘Oh, when I go to America, I'm going to be riding in a Benz,' " she said with a laugh. "No. You're going to be riding on the CTA just like everybody else."

The Ntows moved back to Bolingbrook, Ill., in 1994. Agnes was six and in the second grade, and said she had trouble fitting into American culture. "One time I was playing tic tac toe and lost, so I said the ‘s' word," she said. "I didn't understand why my teacher was yelling at me! My cousins in Africa would say it jokingly and it wasn't looked at as negative or taboo."

She eventually got her bearings here, but Ntow never lost touch with Ghana. "My parents did anything and everything to keep the Ghanian morals and values in the house," she said. "So although we left there, we really never left. It's still a big part of us." The family has been back to visit twice, and Agnes plans on returning this March.

Ntow auditioned for Miss Africa USA in August 2009 because she felt it represented something substantial — that it was a chance to make a difference. "I feel like it's my duty to go back and help those who are unfortunate like my parents were, without making them leave their homeland," she said. "Let me take what I've learned here and go back and develop my country. Whatever is here we can take down there and develop the country. This pageant will help me do that."

She plans on using the pageant for fund-raising. "I want people to know that I am Africa," she says. "I want them to know I am credible, and that if they gave money for my ideas, I would know exactly what to do with it and what to put it towards."

Ntow hopes to someday put money toward a community school in Kpando. There is already a program in place that is attempting to build the school, and Ntow wants to help equip it with books, scholarship money, clothes, shoes and even computers. She also wants to add a recreational center. "This will build a community with more jobs and places to hang out, so after school we don't just have to go to the one person's house who has a TV," she says. "Everything is in Accra, but not everyone can get there. We need it to be more accessible."

Ntow (left) smiles for the camera alongside Nykita Garnett, representing Liberia, at the Miss Africa USA 2010 Semi-Finals in Atlanta over Valentine’s Day weekend. Photo courtesy of Agnes Ntow.

Agnes Ntow is competing against 75 other women. She will be in the spotlight and under the radar for two days. So how does Ntow, a first-time pageant participant, keep her cool?  

"Here's my secret," she said. "No matter what I do, I always pray beforehand. If I've got God and a good cause that I'm passionate about on my side, who's against me?"
Ntow does not know if she will win the pageant, but she knows it will be beneficial regardless. "To me, the main thing is not just the crown and the title," she says. "It means that no matter how far you get pulled away from your home country, you still have that relation. You still are able to do something."

Agnes Ntow has big plans ahead of her as she hopes to become the Oprah Winfrey or Tyra Banks of Africa someday. She insists on completing this mission whether or not she is crowned Miss Africa USA 2010. So keep an eye out, because one day you may be Googling her.

Originally published in the Loyola Phoenix on February 7, 2010. Link here.