Twelve contestants, also known as “housemates”, from the twelve different countries in Africa are brought together in the Big Brother house situated in Randburg, South Africa. The participating countries are Nigeria, Uganda, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, Zambia Angola, Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania and Zimbabwe.

At the end of every season, the last housemate is regarded as the grand winner of a variety of prizes. These often include a huge amount of money, a house and lot, a car, or a holiday vacation.

Basically, Africa Big Brother capitalizes on isolation and camaraderie on TV. The basic rule is that all the contestants should have no form of communication or contact to anyone outside the house. Instead, they should make it a point to form a strong bond of friendship and cooperation with their housemates.

Unfortunately, perfect camaraderie seems to be near the impossible since each housemate stems from a different country and culture.  They also meet for the first time inside the house, yet they are supposed to get to know each other in the shortest time possible, before each of them gets evicted. All of these take place while they are on national TV. Eviction is based on the nominations of the housemates and the votes of the viewers.

In the popular TV show Africa Big Brother, “Big Brother” refers to the owner and master of the house that provides instructions on how the housemates should go about their daily living inside. He usually gives them various tasks and activities that may yield privileges or punishments.  He makes it a point that all the housemates live in perfect harmony. However, in addition to the tasks provided by Big Brother, the housemates are supposed to nominate their fellows for eviction.

Africa Big Brother is only one among the many country adaptations of the Big Brother reality TV show. The said show has been adapted by over thirty countries all over the world. The idea for the Big Brother show is a product of the John de Mol Produkties.

The name “Big Brother” was inspired by the novel “Nineteen Eighty Four”. It was written by Eric Arthur Blair (a.k.a. George Orwell) in 1949. The story was about a futuristic totalitarian regime where “Big Brother” referred to the Oceania leader who had total control over his territory. GP