By Emma Kakololo WINDHOEK Vanantia Otto was selected over the weekend as the semi-finalist from Namibia who will contest the prestigious Face of Africa beauty pageant. She will join other semi-finalists from 11 sub-Saharan countries to contest the beauty title whose winner is destined to become a familiar face on catwalks across the globe. The scouting team that includes striking model Andiswa Manxiwa and model management executive Vicky Cursham – both principal scouting judges – is busy selecting its Nokia Face of Africa 2006 semi-finalists. Some of these would be announced just after the scouting judges leave their countries while other beauties will have to wait until April to discover if they have qualified. “From the magic to the mystery, it’s all part of the excitement of the continent’s premier modeling initiative!” stated MultiChoice Namibia on Sunday. Once selected, the semi-finalists will 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. The statement also quoted last year’s winner of the Nokia Face of Africa, Kaone Kario from Botswana, urging participants to consider her words. “Last year was my time but this year could be your turn. If you don’t enter, you will never know how successful you could have been.” This is the sixth year that the Face of Africa project is running. Starting in 1998, the project ran for four years before taking a short hiatus. Last year, M-Net and Nokia partnered and the project returned as the Nokia Face of Africa 2005. Previous winners of the title include Oluchi Onweagba (Nigeria), Benvinda Mudenge (Namibia), Nombulelo Mazibuko (South Africa) and Ramatoulaye Diallo (Senegal).