Nigerian model and beauty queen Ibiagbanidokibubo Asenite Agbani Darego is powerful because of what she represents. She is the very first African person to win the Miss World title.

Then an 18-year-old, she was selected out of the 93 contestants from all over the world for the Miss World Pageant.

Agbani Darego was crowned winner in Sun City, South Africa, with Miss Aruba, Zerelda Lee, and Miss Scotland, Juliet-Jane Horne, emerging first and second runners up respectively.

Darego didn’t just stumble into history-making in pageantry, ever since childhood, she had nursed the desire of wanting to be a supermodel.

The death of her biological mother at age 12 prepared her for tough challenges in the future. Make no mistake, Darego’s path to superstardom didn’t come without challenges, she had in time past auditioned for the M-Net Face of Africa modeling competition despite her conservative father’s wishes, but was not chosen as a finalist.

In 2001, she was crowned Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria which gave her the leverage to contest for the Miss World title and won it the same year.

Prior to winning MBGN, Darego has appeared in promotion campaigns for haircare brand Gentle Touch with model Oluchi, and served as the face of Arik Air. She has also graced the covers of Complete Fashion, Mania, ThisDay Style, Genevieve, True Love, and TW Magazine.

Darego was born in Lagos on 22 December 1982 the sixth of eight children. At age two, her family relocated to Port Harcourt, Nigeria where she was raised in D-Line.

She is an alumnus of the University of Port Harcourt where she studied Computer Science and Mathematics