IT came as no surprise to those in attendance when East Ruimveldt Secondary teacher Gabrelle Cummings prevailed over six other young ladies and was crowned Miss Emancipation Queen 2018 late Saturday night at the National Cultural Centre.
GPHC medical doctor Colleen Bovell copped the first runner- up spot with Feliciann Elliot coming in at second and Shelisa Depradine at third.

“I am currently overwhelmed that’s the first thing, but surprised? Not really,” the English teacher said just after her win
“I’m very proud of my achievement and I just want to say congratulations to all my sisters who participated, they were excellent. Oh my God, I’m out of words.”

In the end, it was Cummings’ answer to the final question about reparations that landed her the title. All the top four girls were asked the same question which read: “Caribbean nations have recognised this period, the International Decade for People of African Descent, one of the focal points is reparations. What are your views on reparations?”
The judges were pleased with Cummings’ response.

She said: “When it comes to reparation, I know the first thing that people ask is, do we as black people deserve it, and I say that ‘yes’, we do deserve the reparation. What would we do with the reparation? I would suggest that they open schools and keep courses that would educate our young black people about who they were before slavery. We would use the reparation money as a form of building back our African youth, building back the culture, the culture that they broke, building back our nation,” Gabrelle expressed.
From the start, the well-spoken 21-year-old was a crowd favourite and as the night continued from category to category, she persistently stood out above the competition.

SELF-ACCEPTANCE
All smiles, Cummings said she dedicated her win to her students who struggle with self-acceptance.

“The reason I joined this pageant is because of my students. They always say, Miss I’m too dark, I want to get fair or things like that, so now I can go back to them and say Miss Cummings has an afro and she’s dark-skinned and she’s a queen,” Cummings said.
Aside from the crown, Cummings was also the winner of the “Best Project Presentation” prize, though she did admit that, that segment was one of the most difficult areas of the pageant for her.

“The most difficult part would have been the STEM project, because that robot gave us a hell of a time to programme, it was really difficult, but in the end we persevered and I actually won the STEM project segment and that was my biggest surprise yet,” Cummings said.

Dr Bovell copped the other special prizes, walking away with the “Best Spoken Word Presentation” and winning the “People’s Choice” award, which was done via social media.
Following the initial introduction, the girls paraded in their African business wear, showing several ways to put an African spin on the modern outfits.

Still dressed in their business wear, the girls next did their project presentation, when they displayed a robot that they helped to build and programme, and were each quizzed on different aspects of the robot.

For the most part, all of the girls passed with flying colours.

The pageant then moved to the African evening gown segment, during which the girls changed over into some dazzling attire, but while they had fun with that segment, the following question-and-answer section was a challenge for some.

Each girl was asked structured questions based on African cultural lectures they attended during their training period. After that, it was the end of the road for delegates Patrina Cummings, Tandika Moore, and Sithendisi Cameron.

With the count down to the final four, it all hinged on the final question. Each delegate was asked the same question, and in the end it was Gabrelle who had the best answer.