By Emma Kakololo WINDHOEK An opportunity for Namibians wanting to follow in the footsteps of the country’s top model, Benvinda Mudenge, has arrived as the continent’s most established model talent search, the Nokia Face of Africa, resumes its 6th session this month. Namibian beauty, Mudenge became the Face of Africa in 1999 after Oluchi Onweagba of Nigeria in 1998. This time round, the project has selected various cities in which it will hold open castings for aspiring models. The cities on the casting route are Accra (Ghana), Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), Johannesburg (South Africa), Kampala (Uganda), Kigali (Rwanda), Lagos (Nigeria), Lusaka (Zambia), Luanda (Angola), Nairobi (Kenya) and Windhoek (Namibia). Any young woman from Africa who meets the entry requirements is welcome to attend a casting session in any of the confirmed host cities. In Namibia, a casting session will be held at the FÃÆ’Æ‘Æ‘ÃÆ”šÃ‚¼rstenhof Hotel in Windhoek on Saturday March 4, 2006 from 08h30. Would-be entrants are encouraged to arrive before 12:00 to ensure that there is adequate time for them to be evaluated. Young women between the ages of 17 and 24 (as of August 31, 2005) with a height of at least 1,74 metres and maximum hip measurement of 36 inches are eligible to enter. Would-be entrants should also not have a current contract with any modeling agency, either locally or internationally. This year, as with the previous season, the prize of a modeling contract is again on offer for the Nokia Face of Africa 2006, provided once more by the prestigious Storm Model Management. Storm Model Management executive Vicky Cursham plays a key role in the 2006 search as a principal scouting judge alongside gorgeous former runway model Andiswa Manxiwa. The duo will be joined on their visits to the confirmed African casting cities by an M-Net production team that will be filming the trip for later broadcast. During the visit, the scouting team will select its Nokia Face of Africa 2006 semi-finalists. Some of the semi-finalists will be announced just after the scouting judges leave their country whilst others will have to wait until April to discover if they have qualified as semi-finalists. Once selected, the semi-finalists will then travel to two different locations for two rigorous ‘bootcamp’ selection sessions. Thereafter, only the top ten finalists will proceed to the Nokia Face of Africa 2006 Final, to be held in August this year at Sun City in Johannesburg. From the magic to the mystery, it’s all part of the excitement of the continent’s premier modeling initiative!