Miss Grand International: Tanzanian Jihan Dimack becomes the first African to be crowned

In 2026, Tanzanian Jihan Dimack became the first African to win Miss Grand International, a pageant held in Thailand. She shared her journey on the Maelezo podcast, with her comments reported by AllAfrica.

It all began in 2014 in Dar es-Salaam at Swahili Fashion Week. She was 17, had no modeling experience, and showed up to her first casting wearing heels borrowed from another contestant that were not her size. She was selected and then named the best newcomer of the year. Her mother, who ran a hair salon in the Mikocheni neighborhood, had encouraged her to give it a try.

Twelve years of closed doors

What followed was a succession of rejections. As the second runner-up for Miss Tanzania, she found herself at the center of a public debate and stepped away from pageants for two years. She returned and won Miss Universe Tanzania in 2016: the very next day, Miss Grand Tanzania denied her entry on the grounds that she already held a national title. She then spent years waiting for an opportunity to represent her country internationally, which never came. In 2018, another attempt collapsed when the national pageant was canceled without explanation.

She finally won the Miss Grand Tanzania title in August 2026 and flew to Thailand in September. She arrived with too few outfits for a competition of this scale. The national director, Madame Nazik, and a member of her team, Anita Andrew, found local Thai designers who delivered outfits that needed to be adjusted. When the two finalists were announced, standing alongside Miss Ecuador, she said she was overcome with nerves. She attributes her victory to the grace of God.

What she wants to do with the title

Jihan Dimack has announced that she wants to support young women and structure the fashion and beauty industries in Tanzania by pushing for real professional training: runway walking, styling, makeup, and public speaking. She also intends to promote the culture, people, and tourism of her country, and to carry the pageant's theme, "Stop the War," through messages of peace, unity, and equality. Her message to the youth: a temporary failure is not the end of an ambition.

Her story says something broader than just the crown. For twelve years, it was not her abilities that were lacking, but the structures: a clear national circuit, pageant directors who play by the rules, and designers capable of dressing a candidate for an international stage. The outfits ended up coming from Bangkok. That is exactly what she says she wants to build in Dar es-Salaam.