Ghana’s first female finalist in the Big Brother Africa reality show, Beatrice Maame Adwoa Boabeng Oppong also known as M’am Bea, has condemned the practice where housemates go nude in the hope to win the show.
According to her, given her respect for moral values, she does not think it is appropriate to go naked in the Big Brother house just to win the grand prize of $300,000.
After 63 days of living in a confined house, Tanzania’s Idris emerged winner of this year’s Big Brother Africa (Hotshots) reality show beating seven other housemates JJ (Zimbabwe), Tayo (Nigeria), Butterphly (Zimbabwe), Macky2 (Zambia), Sipe (Malawi), Nhlanhla (South Africa) and Ghana’s M’am Bea to the title.
The reality show over the years received huge criticisms and condemnations for promoting nudity, promiscuity and vices that are not African. Some well-known religious figures on the continent have called for an outright ban on the reality show.
The Big Brother house has been fitted with cameras allowing viewers to watch all aspects of the housemate’s lives including the infamous Shower Hour, which shows the contestants taking their baths.
M’am Bea is one of a few housemates who have not exposed their nudity in the entire period. This rare feat, the bubbly Ghanaian noted, is due to her strong moral values.
“I’m a Ghanaian girl, we were trained properly, just because other people were bathing naked doesn’t mean I should also bath naked. Like I said before, reputation was very important,” she told Myjoyonline.com in an exclusive interview Monday.
She noted that: “Despite the fact that it’s a game, it does not mean you should show your body to the world so it is very important to have respect for yourself and the family that you come from. Shower Hour does not necessarily mean you have to be naked, it’s a choice that one has to make.”
The 25-year-old Ghanaian fashion designer noted that she had her reputation in mind before entering the reality show and that “at the end of the day you want to look back and know that you are happy with everything that you did in the house. They had a choice,” to shower whether naked or covered.
Over the past seasons, some Ghanaian representatives including Confidence Haugen (Big Brother Africa Amplified) and Selorm (Selly) Ghalley (Big Brother Africa The Chase) were slammed for exposing their bodies on the show.
While she believes that her Ghanaian upbringing and values prevented her from going naked in the house, M’am Bea stressed that she wasn’t ready to tow the same line as the previous housemates and expose herself.
“Just because they did that does not mean that I’m also going to do that, we are all different, we come from different homes. So for me I wouldn’t have been comfortable if it was a must to do that.”
She noted that decisions taken by housemates are entirely theirs because “before you go into the house you know what is expected of you so everything you are briefed. It’s a choice, the things you choose to do in the house; being in the relationship, [getting] intimate, if you want to get down, people are ready to get down with you, at end of the day it’s your choice.”
Asked why she didn’t get involved with any guy in the house, M’am Bea said although she is single, she “wasn’t attracted to guys in the house and my main focus was winning the money, that was my priority,” and that she wasn’t interested in getting into any relationship. “For me it’s all about my career.”
