Big Brother Africa Comes Underfire in Tanzania

Dodoma — The government has strongly criticized the reality television show Big Brother Africa, branding the South Africa-based programme as immoral and a disgrace to African norms and customs.

Winding up his ministry’s budget estimates in the National Assembly on Friday, the Minister for Information, Youth, Culture and Sports, Emmanuel Nchimbi concurred with MPs’ complaints that the programme was a mockery of Tanzanian and African culture.

“I’m equally concerned with Big Brother Africa show, that programme is really disgusting, a nuisance, we want to tell all Tanzania that the government is not supporting this show, we’re not entertaining it,” Nchimbi told the House.

Clapped up with the country’s lawmakers, the minister added; “The show is full of nude scenes, I’m wondering what this Big Brother is teaching our children!

Most of the MPs who contributed to the ministry’s budget estimates, agreed that scenes of nudity and the housemates’ behaviour in the BBA house were disgusting and morally corrupting.

Mariam Msabaha (Special Seat- CUF ) said the programme was annoying and that it was eroding Tanzania’s moral fibre and undermining efforts to change sexual behaviour as a way of combatting the spread of HIV and Aids.

“We are not learning anything from the so called Big Brother Africa, what is this show portraying to Africans? It’s disgusting,” she said. The show brings together in a single house 12 contestants – each from a different African country, Tanzania being one of them.

Just about every move the housemates make – their time in bed, in the kitchen, in the garden and in the shower – is caught on camera and beamed into people’s homes every night.

Bhoke, Tanzania’s female representative in the previous show dubbed Big Brother Amplifier was evicted from the contest after going live to BBA cameras making love with his house lover, Ernest from Uganda.

It was not the first time the housemates went nude. During the first season of Big Brother Africa reality show, Uganda’s Gaetano Juuko Kaggwa who was a law student then had sex with South Africa’s Abergail Plaatjes.

The show initially involved twelve countries within Africa, namely Angola, Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe with two countries Ethiopia and Mozambique added in season four.

Each country produces a contestant living in an isolated house while trying to avoid being evicted by viewers and ultimately winning a large cash prize at the end of the show. Tanzania’s Richard Bezuidenhout emerged winner of Big Brother Africa II and bagged in US 100,000 dollars prize.