A new beauty pageant, Miss Black History Month-Africa 2004 was on Thursday launched in Accra with a call on Africans to write their own history instead of relying on foreigners to do so for them.

Mr Abu-Bakar Saddique Boniface, Deputy Minister for Tourism and Modernisation of the Capital City, who launched the pageant, expressed regret about how the history of Africans have often been written for them by foreigners especially Europeans.

He said it was imperative for blacks to get together and re-write their history by reasserting themselves in all aspects of life including the concept of beauty.

"This is because the unique culture and beauty of the African has been eroded and undermined by foreign influence," he said.

"For decades our concept for beauty, in terms of shape, colour and dressing, have been seriously undermined."

The pageant organized by Ahenti Management, a UK based events Management Company, in partnership with the Ghana Tourist Development Company is scheduled for June 26. It would have 14 contestants from 14 African countries competing for the coveted title.

The pageant differ from others by not having any swimwear category and it would be exclusively for black women with different skin tones from deep black to light amber with dress sizes from eight to 16. Mr Boniface said Ghana has positioned herself as the 'Homeland' for Africans of the Diaspora and the Ministry was putting in place programmes that would attract and link up people of black descent in the Diaspora.

"This explains why PANAFEST was created and Emancipation Day celebrated," he said.

Mr Bonifgace said Ghana would in 2007 tie the celebration of its 50th Independence Anniversary with the 200th anniversary of the abolition of slave trade.

The theme for that celebration would be "Celebration of Excellence'. Barima Adu-Asamoa, organizer of the pageant, said the first Black Beauty Month pageant was first held in Europe in 2002 and it was a success and hence the need to bring it home in Africa.

He said participants would be from Ghana, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Cameroon, Senegal, The Gambia, Sierra Leone, Gabon and Congo. The rest are the Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, South Africa, Uganda, Mozambique and Malawi.