Big Brother Africa Vs My Good African Culture

Big Brother Africa is a reality television show created by John de Mol. The show is all about a group of persons from different countries of Africa living together in a large house,isolated from the outside world and continuously monitored by television cameras. As the name implies,"Big Brother Africa" was suppose to portray and preserve African "Culture and Heritage". But, ironically,the show is now used for sexual immorality, unnecessary mimicking of western culture, indecent dressing and for pretense purposes among others. The contestants are not in any way, showing respect for African culture and tradition.

In Big Brother Africa, no African culture is allowed in the house. Whenever the African culture is portrayed, it is linked with the catastrophe of HIV/AIDS, war and violence. our local dialects are not recognized, they are regarded as non-official languages and therefore not worth to be used in the house. Immorality in big brother Africa is at it peak, the African culture is exploited and taken for granted. the big brother Africa show is of no value to the African culture because each season the African woman losses her pride and respect in the reality show.There, in the big brother Africa, they only imitate the western world.

The Show has preserved the Western culture than the African tradition. The mode of dressing, their food, even their conversations portray more of the Western culture. For instance, it is unafrican to go all nude in public, engage in immoral acts with the opposite sex without a formal marital rites.

The reality show attracts a lot of criticism all over African for not showing positive values to younger people.The organizers are not interested in morals and values. BBA in recent times looks like a terrible experiment in on air pornography with the girls behaving like sex starved animals in a zoo and the men like bunch of barracudas with uncontrollable third legs

Wole Soyinka, according to a Nigerian newspaper, called the show ‘banal, lacking anything to offer to the continent’ (Daily Independent,21 July 2003). Nigeria, he noted in a widely reported speech, would do just as well to put on its own reality television show: ‘All we need is just get some prostitutes on the streets and lunatics. They will go naked for nothing’(International Herald Tribune, 10 September 2003). Personally, he added, he would prefer to watch the crude productions of the Nigerian video industry than Big Brother Africa……."

 In another development, Kenyan political scientist Stephen Ndegwa, a Senior Public Sector Governance Specialist with the World Bank and a mainstream democratic theorist, shared Soyinka’s disdain for the programme. He asked in an opinion article published by the Daily Nation (Nairobi) cited in Sean Jacobs (2007, pg. 856):

 Why are we so fast in accepting trash provided it comes from the West? Why are we not as aggressive in promoting our own lifestyles and values to the outside world? I support the leaders of Malawi and Namibia, and the religious community in Uganda for censoring the Big Brother Africa reality TV show. What do our children learn from this show apart from watching housemates bathing in the nude and throwing up after hours of indulgence?  To this end, the fact stands that the Big Brother Africa reality television show is not helping to promote African culture.