Uti Wins Big Brother All Stars

An elated Uti (middle) with IK (left)

At the end of the final show last Sunday evening when Nigerian Uti Nwachukwu strutted the red carpet from the Big Brother house to the stage where his compatriot IK the host was waiting, he would be delighted, and rightly so, that he is the best Big Brother Africa housemate ever.

He beat Zimbabwe’s Munya by 8 countries to 7 to scoop the massive US$200 000 prize, outlasting the 13 other All Star Housemates over three months.

When the evening began, there were five housemates with a chance of claiming the continent’s biggest reality show prize – Lerato, Munya, Mwisho, Sheila and Uti but they were evicted one-by-one, leaving Uti alone in the House.

The exciting night was laced with music performances from Maye Hunta doing the official Big Brother All Stars Anthem, African Star and Nigerian rapper MI who performed Anotyi. All nine previously evicted housemates also graced the ocassion.

This season had been hyped to be the Big Brother of all Big Brothers when 14 previous contestants in the successful pan-African television reality show gathered to entertain viewers and pitch for the USD200,000 prize money at stake. The question would be this: did the season five of Big Brother Africa live up to the hype?

Of course it did and then some more! Controversy, sexuality, sensuality, drunkenness, debauchery, smoking, pretentiousness, strategic thinking, gossip, busybody, badmouthing, backbiting, acting, dancing, entertainment and all the characteristics that have made this show a hit on the continent were impressively demonstrated.

When it came down to it, most of the 14 men and women really did all they could to ensure they would be the one to take the money home. The line-up included Leroato (South Africa), Meryl (Namibia), Sammi B (Ghana), Uti (Nigeria), Jennifer (Mozambique), Yacob (Ethiopia), Munya (Zimbabwe), Paloma (Zambia), Mwisho (Tanzania), Code (Malawi), Hannington (Uganda), Sheila (Kenya), Kaone (Bostwana) and Tatiana (Angola).

Several things conspired to make the last season a big deal. The first was the cast. The fact that all the people who were chosen had previously taken part in the competition charted a good course for controversy and entertainment.

Another item that added to the excitement the season generated was the creating of the barn by the producers. Those who were cast out of the main house were kept and for a long time no one, contestants or viewers, knew what exactly would happen to them. It was only two weeks before the finale that three of the barnmates were returned to the main house to compete for the prize money.

In this barn was a cow and a few chicken. Barnmates, as those who were casted here became stylishly known, had a duty to feed the chicken and the cow and also milk the latter.

Big Brother spared no expense to fly in people to pay surprise visits to the barnmates. For example Sammy B had his former girlfriend Fafa visiting, Hannington was surprised to have had his member of parliament mother visit, Max Chongo of season two was there, Ofuneka of season two visited the house, Paloma’s sister and Jen’s ex-boyfriend too came around.

You would remember that famous bust up in the barn. An argument between the barnmates led to fisticuffs between Lerato and Hannington. The latter was summarily evicted from the show and the former was banned from drinking alcohol, amongst others.

Then there was that infamous mutiny that almost marred the show very early on. It is almost a taboo to talk back at Big Brother let alone raise your voice at the enigmatic character. But this group of Big Brother housemates broke that rule when early on in the season they threatened to walk out and rained invectives on Big Brother and the production team.

The end result was for Big Brother to reduce the prize money to USD180,000 which was restored one week before the finale.

There was sexual behaviour in abundance throughout the season. Tatiana kissed so many people both in the house and in the barn and that includes Sheila. Shelia and Meryl went under the covers and did stuff that suggested they were making love. Tatiana and Munya hit it off, Sheila and Uti blew hot and cold, Tatiana and Hannington carried it very far in the barn, Sammi B felt horny around Ofuneka and Yacob seemed to have the hots for Lerato.

Dinner in the sky. That singular act by the producers killed anything else that had happened before and it was absolutely fantastic! This thing carried the housemates to the sky where they sat, wined and dined till very late when they returned “home” to sleep.

It was only in this season that one housemate was nominated more times than in any previous season. Munya was brought forward for eviction eight times and on all occasions he was saved by viewers and returned to the house.

But the jugular, the biggest surprise and one difficult to be beaten was the engagement that took place between Mwisho and Meryl a few weeks before the season would end.

The two have had a relationship going on for major part of the season and then they tossed the idea about getting married in the house but finally settled on having an engagement instead.

So it happened that Big Brother organised an engagement party, invited family of the two to the house and together with the housemates they had a party after Mwisho had proposed to Meryl. A day after that, the bride was evicted and she spent the remaining days in the barn.

In the final analysis and after 91 days five housemates were left to challenge each other for the money. Uti, Munya, Mwisho, Lerato and Sheila. Shelia was the first to go, followed by Mwisho and Lerato.

Would it be Munya or Uti as many had predicted? Munya was then the last to be evicted hence the declaration of Uti as winner of Big Brother Africa All Stars. So toss it anyhow and it would be one of the most exciting Big Brother seasons yet.