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"Big Brother" South Africa style
by Alastair Leithead |
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We've had it twice, most European countries have had it at least once and now it's swept through South Africa. The so called "reality TV" programme Big Brother has just spent the last three months dominating the gossip pages and the radio talk shows across South Africa and last night it's winner was unveiled.
Big Brother has been a media phenomenon across the globe, but in a country still trying to mend the damage done by years of segregation, bringing together black, white and coloured housemates was not just entertainment - it was a barometer of just how far society has progressed since 1994.
The winner was a man known by the nation as Ferdi, a white male Afrikans tour operator from Cape Town who has caused such a stir outside the Big Brother House, by his antics inside.
It's no real surprise that he won - with a massive majority of the vote - after all most South Africans hooked on Big Brother are the ones who can afford satellite TV, and they're still mostly white.
But by putting together 6 white and 6 black and coloured contestants, the man who brought the gameshow to South Africa, Carl Fischer, did bring a bit of reality into people's homes.
There was controversy:
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The teacher's sexy behaviour that's prompted the authorities to question weather she's fit to teach.
- The supposed-Muslim's Ramadan drinking and condemnation from the Islamic community;
- and Ferdi, described in one editorial as "a white gorilla stuck in the mist of an apartheid cloud."
They went from players in a game to benchmarks for people to measure their stereotypes.
Kobus Berger followed Big Brother for Beilt newspaper has never seen such a reaction. "Of course it was entertainment too - the last night was quite a party - and people felt they'd gained from a bit of introspection."
The man in charge of it all, Carl Fischer, believes it was an interesting social experiment for South Africa, but there's still a long way to go.
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Big Brother |
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Ferdinand Rabie - Ferdi
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The Winner
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