Food And Conflict In The BBnaija House
Written By Temitope Fatimah Adeiye
A lot of things in the Big Brother Naija House revolve around food and somehow, viewers have come to associate certain housemates with their relationship with food. For instance, there’s Eric, who seemed to always at all times before his eviction, fortunately for his fellow housemates. Then, Ka3na somehow took charge of cooking for the 20 housemates - voluntarily.
Leaving 20 adults in an enclosed place to fend for themselves with available items means that rations are unregulated and this is an obvious recipe for conflict. So, we saw Praise, now evicted, get really upset for not having an accompanying piece of meat with his meal.
It doesn’t help that the quantity and quality of food items directly hinge on the performance of their weekly wager. The implication of a win is that they gain access to a variety of food items. A loss implies that they’d have to survive on noodles and cereal for a whole week – an experience even broke university students don’t really enjoy.
As a result, some of the housemates get really sneaky during wager losses – one time, Kidd and Erica attempted to hoard a pot of soup from their fellow housemates. Obviously, that didn’t end well. A massive meltdown happened.
Then, there’s Neo and Vee, the toxic couple whose fights almost always anchor around food - even semo (yikes). Cuss words also flew between Tolani Baj and Ka3na who also had a spat over food.
So the question is, why are fresh babes and dudes always fighting over food on live TV? Well, hunger is a primal human experience that is no respecter of social class or swag.
For a show that earns millions of Nairas in sponsorship and votes, the quality of food and amenities in the BBNaija house is lowkey underwhelming.
Interesting, only Big Brother gets to decide the wager score, so this could also be the producer’s ‘attempt to control the circumstances in which the housemates are viewed. The show is ultimately a social experience after all.
The show is a bit reminiscent of quarantine season in the way we all had to stay indoors, away from the outside world. Many people understandably unravelled this period and stress ate a lot - our interview with people who dumped their diets proves this.
On top of this, living with 10 other strangers with no access to the internet would possibly heighten emotions and set people on the edge for something as basic as food.
The politics of food in the Big Brother Naija house is interesting to watch and there are angles to it that may never happen if the housemates weren’t sequestered from the rest of the world with no communication.
Temitope is a Muslim Feminist and freelance writer with an interest in culture, parenting and feminist discourse. Her work has been featured in publications like Pulse, Net Nigeria and many more.