AFRO-NETS> Big Brother Africa - are contestants practicing safe sex? (3)

[Francis Kintu <fkintu@hotmail.com>]

Big Brother Africa - are contestants practicing safe sex? (3)
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John,
 
I share part of your concern at the latest hint of scandal on the 
possibility that Ugandan contestant Gaetano had sex with Abby from 
South Africa. It was actually a front page story in Uganda's Sunday 
Vision newspaper of 22nd June 2003, complete with pictures of the two 
contestants in what, by all indications, appeared to be explicit sex. 
 
It is fair for you to ask, whether, during this alleged sex act, the 
two love birds practiced safe sex, coming, as they do, from two coun-
tries that are amongst the hardest hit by HIV/AIDS, and whether Big 
Brother Africa should really about such things. However, to refer to 
the whole thing as "light hearted trivia, just what the doctor or-
dered to get African?s minds off the daily rigors of life" is to miss 
the key point.
 
The human body and sex are some of the greatest gifts God has pur-
posefully given to mankind. They are not objects of degrading and ex-
ploitative publicity and advertising for rapacious investors. It is 
scandalous when people deliberately engage in sex in front of live 
television, their act being beamed across the world for the fun of it 
or for marketing purposes. It is equally scandalous that a section of 
the population would applaud them as our real heroes! It just tells 
you how far our morality has sunk, largely due to the influence of a 
foreign television culture and system, which will do anything to at-
tract publicity and money for its shareholders. Isn't it a shame that 
in a continent which is riddled with poverty, war and disease, and 
which has some of the worst indicators of human development, these 
are our acclaimed types of "heroes" and stories that we are sending 
out to the world? 
 
However, John, take heart. It is not true that Big Brother Africa is 
very popular in Uganda, for very few people are really watching it. 
Out of Uganda's population of 24 millions, you can be sure that less 
than 700,000 people have access to TV on any daily basis! So it is 
only popular amongst elements of this minority group of people, the 
idle and rootless elements of the so-called middle class, whose only 
obsession and preoccupation is to identify with and copy everything 
western, however useless it might be.
 
Our concern here in Uganda, as in many other parts of Africa, is how 
to raise the currently horrible standards of living for our people, 
and to bring the continent as a whole to the limelight of human de-
velopment. We do not need Big Brother Africa's so called "light 
hearted trivia" to get our minds off the daily rigors of life. We in 
Africa ought to be wary of copying foreign cultures that are only ob-
sessed with eating, drinking, and sex, rather than confronting the 
real demands and challenges of our generation and our people.
 
Francis Kintu
Makerere University
Kampala, Uganda
mailto:fkintu@hotmail.com
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