Big Brother Doubles Up Africa’s 7th
- Details
- Category: Television
- Published on Tuesday, 21 February 2012 19:00
- Written by Moses Serugo
- Hits: 273
Bits of it play out like a televised brothel. Most of it mirrors the real life Big Brother omnipresence of the political machinery in Africa’s banana republics. Moralists deride it as a corruptor of African values. But if there is any attribute Big Brother Africa has beyond being a human zoo experience, then it is the glaring mockery of those half-a-century old borders the fleeing colonialists bequeathed to us at independence. The televised show that returns for a seventh edition in 2012 could provide a “global village” case study if we cared to look beyond the grainy [night vision camera] footage of alleged trysts between the sheets.
Since its 2003 debut, Big Brother Africa has pushed the envelope on the programme format that has traditionally brought together 12 “strangers” under one roof with no contact with the outside world, all for a hefty cash prize taken by the last contestant standing. BBA, as it is fondly called on the continent went one better by bringing together 12 contestants from 12 different nationalities and cultural backgrounds and sequestering them in a plush house. Editions in other lands often stuck with contestants from the same country. There was no better way to scoff at the balkanisation of Africa in as much as the hopefuls only represented a fifth of Africa’s “colonial partitions”.
Sadly for this rare case study in cultural/ social anthropology, the show has mostly elicited buzz around the shenanigans of the contestants, its quasi-entertainment value and the exhibitionism. There was Uganda’s Gaetano’s alleged tryst with South Africa’s Abby in Season I, Tanzania’s Richard mocking his marital vows after falling for Angolan vixen Tatiana, the infamous “fingergate” scandal involving Nigeria’s Ofuneka in a tasteless ménage-a-trois all in 2007’s season II. After Season III’s Tawana (Botswana) having sex with two younger male contestants (Angola’s Ricco and Zimbabwe’s Munya) within hours of each other, the show became rather toned down and tame. The moralists seemed to have won from then on while the “Peeping Toms” cried fowl at formerly freebie prime time viewing a la “shower hour” and “BBA Uncut” being restricted to an online video service, one that could only be accessed via a credit card payment, never mind that most of the continent’s one billion strong population is averse to “plasticised” money.
So will Season 7 be all about “Big Brother” issuing out commands, dangling carrots and wielding his stick yet again? Or shall we see the makings of sub-Saharan spring in which housemates stand-up to Big Brother? After all much like some of our banana republics, his punishments have not always matched the crime. Uganda’s Hannington Kavuma was the victim of a no-appeals decision that resulted in expulsion from the show in 2010 for allegedly assaulting South Africa’s Lerato, that chatty slob and fish woman. So much for Biggie pandering to the [misplaced] domestic violence crusaders.
Season 7, with it’s emphasis on doubling up in which contestants have to enter this edition as a pair, will only give us yet another bloated house of 28 contestants drawn from 14 countries including debutants Liberia and Sierra Leone. There will be no mini-Tahrir Square here. Only a bunch of impressionable housemates sucking up to Biggie in a bid to win Brownie points with continental viewers in 42 countries in a quest for the grand $300,000 cash prize.
Maybe the show could sow seeds of better electoral democracy. But then again, where are the “observers” every time a dapper lady or gentleman from the audit firm that tallies the enveloped viewer votes walks over to the show host (hopefully it will not be the wooden IK again) with the results. Zimbabwe’s Wendel winning last year’s $200,000 continues to be a hard sell. Perhaps it was meant to appease the Zimbabweans over Munya’s prize loss to Nigeria’s Uti in 2010’s All-Stars’ edition. Or maybe it was meant to draw attention away from Nigeria’s hat trick at scooping the bounty three times in a row.
Any picketing of BBA should be over “the winner taking it all”. But like ABBA sang, that is one rule Big Brother diligently obeys to the letter. So the hope here will be that this year’s winner(s) will be the kind that can spur an entrepreneurial legacy on the continent. Past winners have mostly succumbed to hedonism and later fading into the sunset after crispness of their dollar winnings wore off. Of course it is the winner’s prerogative on how they spend their money. And with the backstabbing and scheming that plays out over the show’s three months, finding anyone with a trait of entrepreneurial philanthropy would be a tall order. The call for new contestants ends Monday February 27, 2012. Hopefuls can download entry forms from www.mnetafrica.com/bigbrother or from their local Multichoice office.
MOSES SERUGO ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. )
PHOTOGRAPHS: Multichoice Uganda