Miss Congo, Dorcas Kasinde has won the 2018 Miss Africa Beauty Pageant hosted by the Cross River Government.
Kasinde, who beat Nigeria's Chiamaka Nnaemeka and Zambia's Gladys Kayumba to the second and third positions respectively to clinch the crown, went home with $35,000 and a sport utility vehicle.
Earlier, the Governor of Cross River, Prof. Ben Ayade, said it was time for Africans to appreciate themselves.
Ayade said that Africa does need the western media to tell its story, which they always centered on poverty and wars.
" This is a celebration of African beauty, brain and heritage; the world will see what African brain and beauty is all about.
" The judges should come down and look at those things that make a woman truly African; it is not just the skin colour.
Nigerian singers Innocent Idibia (2face) and Tiwatope Savage-Balogun ( Tiwa Savage) entertained the audience.