By IPS Correspondents
LUSAKA, Oct 7 2003 (IPS)

Now in the saddle of ‘stardom’, Cherise Makubale is finding that perhaps the 106 days she spent in the ‘Big Brother Africa House’ in South Africa, and the100,000-U.S.-dollar prize was easy pickings compared to the scrutiny her private life is getting now.

There are the awkward questions about Makubale’s ‘peculiar’ attachment to her step father, who is a white settler. Everyone wanted to know where or who her mother was and why she did not feature in any conversations she had in the Big Brother Africa (BBA) House about her family.

It has become painfully obvious that Makubale does not want to discuss her mother. The truth is that her mother left her and her younger sister in the care of her step father and more or less ‘disappeared’ to Britain and appearing only after Makubale won the contest.

But being a celebrity, Makubale does not want to make her mother look bad. She has asked that reporters refrain from asking personal questions which has caused the first signs of disaffection with the media which have hitherto been her best friend.

One journalist Sylvia Mwansa says Makubale had better not start playing the diva. ”We know that all families are not perfect and she should just be honest about her relationship with her mother. Besides, we all know Makubale and her family. So it is a bit strange that she wants to give the impression that all is well,” she says.

Makubale has been told to polish her language and be more ‘cultured’. To this her response has been swift, ”I was voted for my uncouth and simple ways and that is who I am”, earning her further ire from those who wanted to use her for promotional campaigns.

Hers is a welcome story in a country where there has been no victory to celebrate since independence 39 years ago. So when 24-year-old Makubale won the BBA competition the country went into a frenzy of elation, dubbed ‘Makubale Fever’. Her winning the contest caused pangs of envy among some who felt cheated of accolades and a brief respite for politicians worn out by the country’s economic malaise and rumblings of discontent in the labour movement.

The ‘Makubale Fever’ erupted Sep. 7 night when she was announced winner – out of 12 contestants from Uganda, Botswana, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Namibia, South Africa, Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and Angola.

Immediately after the announcement, motorists honked, children poured onto the streets singing and fire crackers were heard all over the capital Lusaka.

In her home town Kitwe, a quiet mining town about 400 kilometres north of Lusaka, the days of celebration carried on right until Makubale arrived in Zambia on Sep. 10.

Never before had such a welcome been put up. Airport security called in reinforcements to manage the crowd that was bussed in from Kitwe, Livingstone, Ndola and even some from neighbouring Zimbabwe. Leading the crowd was cabinet minister Joyce Nyirongo. The welcoming ceremony was covered live by the national broadcaster, ZNBC.

Feeding the ‘Makubale Fever’ was President Levy Mwanawasa who gave her a diplomatic passport – she is now the official tourism ambassador for Zambia. Mwanawasa also organised a huge luncheon for her, replete with political big wigs, chief executives of conglomerates and banks and the diplomatic corps, an honour usually reserved for visiting heads of state.

There was the usual cashing in on the Makubale fame, organisations donated money to her to give to charities of her choice, she was awarded trips to game parks and reserves and was even promised a piece of land on which to build a house – rate free for 10 years.

Ironically, Zambia was on the throes of banning the reality show from its screen, on the insistence of the church which had called it immoral – primarily because of the shower hour and also the sexual antics of two house mates Abby from South Africa and Gaetano from Uganda.

Zambia’s vice-president Nevers Mumba, an evangelical television preacher, and Mutale Nalumango, minister of information and broadcasting, had called for dialogue on the issue but actually sided with the proposal to ban the show.

The state house luncheon saw all the critics of the show present with a slightly altered opinion of the whole business. Bishop Joshua Banda from the Northmead Assemblies of God, who was in the forefront of banning the show, said Makubale had won in spite of the depravity of the show and he was vindicated in that the people chose the most upright person in the house.

”While we are happy that Makubale won, it vindicates us, people voted for the most disciplined and moral person in the house. The show itself is immoral and Makubale showed that she was upright and did us proud,” he said.

Vice-president Mumba said Makubale conducted herself well and showed the true African spirit and values and made the best of a ‘very bad situation’.

Then came the critics. One of the aggrieved, veteran journalist Maureen Nkandu Mundea, who now works with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) in London, wrote a scathing tribute to Makubale in the newspapers. Mundea said Makubale was being feted by world icons like Nelson Mandela and getting super star treatment from the Zambian leadership for winning a ‘stupid reality show’ when she (Mundea) had never had as much a handshake from any leader and yet had achieved much more.

Mundea received a back-lash from fellow journalists who questioned her ‘achievements’ but non more stinging than from Nalumango who cried ‘sour grapes’. Makubale had brought honour to the country whereas Mundea had done her job for which she was paid, Nalumango said.

The women’s movements, which congratulated Makubale on her win, have been lukewarm for a very simple reason. They think that Makubale reinforced stereotypes while she was in the house.

”She was forever sweeping, cooking and cleaning and with her loud ways, it reinforced the stereotypes of an African woman’s place. She did not represent us well in there,” says Sara Dumbwisa from the Women and Law in Southern Africa.

She says Makubale could have still maintained her personality but set a standard for equal roles in the house. She says being the first female winner, Makubale would have been the perfect choice for advocating for women’s rights, but she obviously has very different ideas on her role as a woman.

In a lightning interview with IPS in between assignments Makubale says she is still feeling overwhelmed and does not know from day-to-day what she is going to do and still has to pinch herself because everything is still dream like.

”Never, never in my life did I think this would happen to me. I never knew people in Zambia were following Big Brother and the reception I got when I arrived – it was like out of this world. My whole life is changed,” says the former assistant procurement manager.

While the public agreed that Zambia had gone over the top with the ‘Makubale Fever’, this was because Zambia had so little to celebrate. The country has never won a major international event, the economy has hit an all time low; there is a rising HIV/AIDS mortality; a volatile civil service and a billion-dollar foreign debt. Makubale provided a respite from the doom and gloom.

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