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After 106 hectic days in confinement with not only strangers but people of various cultural, linguistic and social backgrounds, Zambian Cherise was declared first continental winner of the Big Brother Africa (BBA).
Cherise — who beat 11 other housemates in the names of Bruna from Angola, Zein from Malawi, Alex from Kenya, Sammi from Ghana, Abby from South Africa, Bayo from Nigeria, Stefan from Namibia, Gaetano from Uganda, Warona from Botswana, Tapuwa from Zimbabwe and Mwisho from Tanzania — was declared winner last evening in a two-hour live grand finale function in South Africa outside the BBA house.
Cherise’s win is a disappointment to a lot of people who thought Gaetano’s brief stay in Big Brother UK, gave him an edge over the others. His chances were bolstered by the winning of the man he swapped with from BBUK Cameron — who was present during Sunday’s show — but he was consoled by being the eighth evictee and the first among the last five.
Following Gaetano were Warona, another hot contender — Tapuwa who is the second runner up and Mwisho.
When Mwisho and Cherise remained in the house, virtually confirming that either of them was going to be the winner, there was tension and suspense among audience, viewers who were glued to their TV sets across Africa and the housemates themselves. The move was deliberate because BBA host presenter Mark Pilgrim actually said it to the housemates.
Although Malawi did not vote for the eventual winner, they have nothing to lose since the grand prize has gone to one of the country’s neighbours. In fact it was obvious the prize was going to either of the two neighbours, Zambia or Tanzania.
Cherise who has been known to be vocal in the house, cried in joy as she was left alone. But who could blame her for she is now a millionaire, at least by Zambian standards (ZK476 million). The first and second runners up have also gone away with various prizes.
The show itself was marvellous and it showed that organisers of BBA are serious in whatever they do.
Knowing the potential of tension among viewers, audience and housemates, they deliberately found a way of creating a vent to release the pressures through music by Bruna, Gidigidi Majimaji from Kenya, Brenda Fassie from South Africa and Femi Kuttie, son to famous and controversial Nigerian musician late Fella Kuttie.
Starting at exactly 5 PM, the show warmed up with Bruna’s performance and while she performed, Pilgrim invited evicted housemates one by one on stage starting in the order of their evictions.
Pilgrim said he could not bring the other two “housemates” on stage because it could have been too much for them. People were confused because it seems they did not know what he was talking about. It was when he mentioned Adam and Terror — the two parrots — that people understood him.
Then another surprise was waiting. Cameron was invited on stage where he was shown some of the highlights of his brief stay in the BBA house.
“People would like to know what you did with the 70,000 pounds sterling you won in Big Brother UK,” Pilgrim told Cameron who was obviously amused with his second coming to South Africa.
He later joined the seven evicted housemates on stage.
Then Pilgrim went behind stage where there were relatives for the remaining five housemates and asked them about their feelings. He talked to Mwisho’s brother, Warona’s mother and a sister to Cherise.
After this, it was time to announce the first evictee of the day where Gaetano’s name was mentioned first, followed by Warona and Tapuwa.
The evictions were punctuated by the music shows where artists like Gidigidi Majimaji invited all the evicted housemates on stage for a dance. It was nice to see the housemates interacting once more, the only difference being that this time around, it was outside the house.
Every housemate whose name was mentioned for eviction, had her highlights in the house shown to the audience, viewers and the housemates themselves.
The audience was asked about the person they thought would cart home the US$100,000, there were mixed feelings and what came out was just noise.
Although the show had its ups and downs in the country, the greatest highlight being the ban on the show on Television Malawi (TVM), it had a huge following among Malawians.
The fact that we had a representative in the house, was the more reason that the show appealed to most Malawians.
Much as people would have loved to see Zein winning the first prize and have artist like Phungu Joseph Nkasa gracing the final show, the fact that a neighbour has won, increases our chances of being the next winner when the next show is organised.
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