Juba, South Sudan – <\/strong>Khloe Nyanda, 21, and the women and girls around her were taught to “stay small and not take up space” growing up.<\/p>\n But the model and law student at the University of Juba followed her instincts and role models who showed her that a different path was possible.<\/p>\n list of 3 items<\/span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n \u201cAdut Akech took her identity as a refugee and turned it into a crown,\u201d Nyanda says, referring to the internationally renowned South Sudanese model who spent her early days in a refugee camp before moving abroad with her family.<\/p>\n The rise of a South Sudanese icon like her is the solid evidence Nyanda hopes to use to convince her family that a career in the industry is possible for her daughter.<\/p>\n He insisted, “Ninety percent of the models you see in South Sudan will tell you the same thing: Adut Akech is the spark.”<\/p>\n Nyanda sits with practiced poise at The Baobab House in Juba, a cultural center that has become a haven for many artists and creatives in the capital city. She speaks with quiet confidence about milestones in her career and generally unspoken realities.<\/p>\n Nyanda’s life is defined by movement. She was born in Yirol, about 200\u2013250 kilometers (about 125\u2013155 mi) northwest of Juba, spent her childhood in Nairobi, Kenya, and later returned to Juba.<\/p>\n In 2016, at the age of 14, she decided she wanted to pursue modeling, but for several years her family viewed the overlap between her academic life and her dream with discomfort.<\/p>\n Inspired by the international success of models like Akech, Nyanda started modeling in 2023. But his family was not convinced about this profession as a career option.<\/p>\n Rejection from within this patriarchal system turned into alienation. Eventually, Nyanda lost her support network, including her half-brother who had raised her since the age of seven. This was compounded by her rejection of the man she had chosen to marry him.<\/p>\n \u201cThey don\u2019t support me,\u201d laments Nyanda.<\/p>\n Despite emerging talent, South Sudan’s weak internal infrastructure acts as a cage, limiting how far ambitions can travel.<\/p>\n For aspiring models, the absence of reliable, protective “mother agencies” means young women are particularly vulnerable to predatory agents and abusive trainers, the models say.<\/p>\n Nyanda says she experienced this complexity firsthand when she rejected a modeling coach’s advice. When he refused to date her, she says it caused personal stress, leading to her losing paid modeling opportunities and shattering her dreams.<\/p>\n On paper, Nyanda is a professional whose work demands mobility and a hybrid identity \u2013 moving between cultures, countries and high-fashion capitals. But in reality, his South Sudanese passport has become another hurdle.<\/p>\n Despite being signed by agencies in London, Paris and Italy, he has faced several visa rejections since 2023.<\/p>\n Her first attempt to attend Milan Fashion Week 2023 was rejected by the Italian Embassy in Nairobi due to bank statement issues involving her small agency. A second attempt through I’m Model Management for Paris, at the French Embassy in Kampala, Uganda, failed twice.<\/p>\n Neither France nor Italy have embassies in South Sudan, so hopefuls have to obtain travel documents from neighboring countries, adding more barriers and expenses.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a wall that I am trying to break with my bare hands,\u201d Nyanda says.<\/p>\n Like Nyanda, 20-year-old Alec Mayen Garang is also attempting to balance his modeling ambitions with his studies as a senior high school student.<\/p>\n Garang was born in Greater Jonglei in eastern South Sudan, about 200 km north of Juba, and grew up in Renk, the northernmost county bordering Sudan.<\/p>\n When she was young, her family relocated to Kampala, Uganda. But the 2016 conflict pushed him back to South Sudan, adding another layer of turmoil to his formative years.<\/p>\n Garang has been inspired by global icon for modeling, South Sudanese-American Anok Yai, who was named Model of the Year at the 2025 British Fashion Awards.<\/p>\n Like Nyanda, Garang also faced strong resistance at home when, at the age of 10, she first developed interest in joining the industry. Her family was concerned about how she could combine education with the demands of runway.<\/p>\n Yet, unlike Nyanda, she found an important ally at home: her older sister attended her first runway show when she was 18 and helped negotiate trust between Garang and their parents.<\/p>\n “I remember telling my father about the show. He was unsure about the industry, asking my sister, ‘What is this modeling? I don’t know much about it,'” she recalls.<\/p>\n “It was my first late-night show, and it only happened after he got my sister to agree to go with me.”<\/p>\n For Garang, her initial hurdles were technical rather than diplomatic: learning to wear high heels, maintaining her figure through a strict diet, and meticulous skin care.<\/p>\n Like many young models, rejection remains her greatest fear, the ghost that haunts auditions and castings.<\/p>\n Still, he sticks to the simple, unwavering commitment to “never give up.”<\/p>\n South Sudan’s influence on global fashion is already visible.<\/p>\n Nine of the world’s top 50 models, as ranked by Models.com, are originally from the country, a remarkable statistic that speaks to both the depth of its talent and the appetite for visibility of its youth.<\/p>\n Several former models have transitioned into design, including Akur Majok, who transitioned from modeling to pursue her passion for fashion design; Dawson Daw Amou, founder of South Sudan Fashion Week; and David Schegold, who specializes in creating custom wedding gowns.<\/p>\n Given the increasing visibility of Black models on international runways, some industry veterans have become coaches and are now actively searching for new talent.<\/p>\n These luminaries often urge young models to prioritize education while pursuing their careers, emphasizing that academic foundation and professional aspirations can and should co-exist.<\/p>\n But at the same time, a new concern is emerging: the fear that as technology advances, AI-generated Black models could eventually displace human models. For some in the industry, this possibility adds another layer of uncertainty to an already fragile career.<\/p>\n Within South Sudan, there is also growing concern about the limited involvement of the Ministry of Culture, Museums and National Heritage in supporting and branding the modeling industry.<\/p>\n Many in the field believe the ministry can play an important role in letting communities and parents know that modeling can be a legitimate, respectable profession.<\/p>\n Without that advocacy, families hesitate to allow their daughters and sons to enter the industry. Some parents are concerned that modeling will lead to a disregard for cultural norms or that their children will lose a sense of connection to home.<\/p>\n Al Jazeera contacted the Ministry of Culture for comment, but they did not respond in time for publication.<\/p>\n Against this backdrop, Nyanda and Garang are navigating more than catwalk choreography and camera angles. They are negotiating with tradition, bureaucracy and technology while asserting their right to take up space.<\/p>\n Their longing to walk the runways of international fashion weeks collides with the hard realities of social conservatism, fragile infrastructure and the politics of global mobility.<\/p>\n They face systems that often hinder women’s ambitions through social isolation, exploitative practices, and repeated visa refusals at consular windows around the world.<\/p>\n But both are committed to pursuing their dreams in a country that is still in the process of becoming itself \u2013 inspired by the possibility that, in doing so, they might help reimagine the boundaries of what can be imagined for the next generation.<\/p>\n In March, Garang won the modeling award in the “Creativity” category at the national Miss Junub beauty pageant. Since then, her aspirations have grown from personal success to a broader commitment to shaping the future of South Sudan’s fashion industry \u2013 including supporting and guiding emerging talent.<\/p>\n Nyanda’s ambitions have always been driven more by personal visibility or vanity.<\/p>\n She carries a radical philanthropic blueprint: dreaming of not only walking for Dior and Louis Vuitton, but also using her success to build institutions at home.<\/p>\n Beyond her own modeling aspirations, she is also determined to invest her future savings in building a school and hospital for orphans, as well as a safe, reliable mothering agency in South Sudan, to help reinvest in her country.<\/p>\n “South Sudan is not the place I’m running from,” she says. “It’s the place I’m running for.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Juba, South Sudan – Khloe Nyanda, 21, and the women and girls around her were taught to “stay small and not take up space” growing up. But the model and law student at the University of Juba followed her instincts and role models who showed her that a different path was possible. Recommended Stories list<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":72894,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[3320,4775,5437,4634,22427,1107,2105,6331,6948,3498],"class_list":{"0":"post-72891","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bible-news","8":"tag-art","9":"tag-culture","10":"tag-models","11":"tag-quest","12":"tag-showcase","13":"tag-south","14":"tag-space","15":"tag-sudanese","16":"tag-talent","17":"tag-young"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=72891"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72895,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/72891\/revisions\/72895"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/72894"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=72891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=72891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=72891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n
obstacles<\/h2>\n
![\"South](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Alek-Mayen-Garang-copy-1776065555.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513&quality=80\")
Help<\/h2>\n
![\"South](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2265663311-1776064480.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513&quality=80\")
dominate the catwalk<\/h2>\n
![\"South](\"https:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Nyanda-Khloe_____-copy-1776065564.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513&quality=80\")
Commitment to South Sudan<\/h2>\n