On Sunday night musician Kwaku Tutu was the 7th housemate to get kick butted out of Big Brother when he lost out to Richard and got evicted by ten countries to two.
On Monday morning when I caught up with him for us to find out how Fakewu he is he hadn't slept a wink - he'd been up all night starring in Big Brother 3 with Lerato, Bertha, Max and Meryl who spent the night in his hotel room gossiping about everyone else in the house. Apparently they stayed up until 4:30 am and Kwaku got up at 5.
*Big Brother cam. zooms in with American Pie playing in the background*
Tashi: So what did you all talk about 'til the early hours?
Kwaku: Everything. Absolutely everything, just going through the experience and how they felt about the people that nominated them.
Tashi: Oooh - tell us more.
Kwaku: I mean you know, Code definitely came up. He was supposedly innocent - innocent as far as nominating ... the time when Lerato and Max were nominated, Code had no part in it but his actions were contrary. For me it didn’t matter whether he nominated them or not, his actions were just not of somebody who was a good friend.
Tashi: While you were talking did you chat about what you could have done differently?
Kwaku: Yes actually - they told me that my downfall was a comment I made that people would crumble at my feet whenever they were nominated against me.
Tashi: Do you agree it was a bad idea?
Kwaku: No, that’s exactly how I felt and I was going to be real to myself.
Tashi: But you got evicted so obviously you were wrong.
Kwaku: Not necessarily - the game’s not over yet. You know Big Brother might throw a screwball.
Tashi: Are you planning on going back??
Kwaku: You never know. I believe that nothing’s impossible.
Tashi: Have they said something that makes you say that or is it just wishful thinking?
Kwaku: It’s wishful thinking - I mean I had that fake eviction so I’ve realized that anything’s possible.
Tashi: Two country’s voted for Richard and the rest voted for you - do you think it's 'cos people thought you were too big for your boots?
Kwaku: Yeah, I think that statement I made, I think they thought I was getting cocky.
Tashi: Were you?
Kwaku: I said that if Bertha is evicted, the game begins from there. When I said that it was like, ‘Well, I have nothing to lose anymore,” everybody who was supposed to be close to me is already out, ce la vie, let the chips fall where they may.
Tashi: When you went into the penthouse with Ofunneka - why didn’t you try to get closer to her to get her on your side?
Kwaku: I actually did you know but I’m also competition to her, we’re both from West Africa so it would be suggestive that if one of us left, the other one might get the vote from the other country.
Tashi: At the very beginning Lerato said you’re a bullshitter - are you?
Kwaku: No I‘m not a bullshitter - do you think I am?
Tashi: Well I don’t know ... what’s up with the American accent?
Kwaku: My formative years were spent in the States and then when I went back to Ghana I went to an American/English school.
Tashi: Is that how everybody speaks?
Kwaku: No they don’t actually.
Tashi: You know what it’s like when someone goes to America and comes back with one and we’re all like :”Argh!”
Kwaku: I know I hate it, I detest it as a matter of fact but this is really who I am and to have spoken or acted contrary would have been to be contrary to who I am.
Tashi: How long were you in America for?
Kwaku: I left when I was four and went back to Ghana when I was about 12 and then I’ve been and forth since. Initially I lived in New York, I don’t know if you’ve heard of Africa New York, that’s where Cornell University is, my father was getting his Masters phd there. In my latter years it was my music that took me back - to Atlanta.
Tashi: How do you feel your accent impacts on your identity?
Kwaku: Well I think the accent is a matter of expression, granted that, really and truly, English is not an African thing. Like my country was colonized by the British so most people have British intonations so does that make them any more African or less African? I think your identity is who you are inside as opposed to the superficial stuff.
Tashi: So if you were to try you couldn’t speak any other way?
Kwaku: I can speak the way I want to whenever I feel like.
Tashi: I’m busy listening verry closely to hear if your accent’s changing. (sounded slightly Jamaican/Ghanaian at this point)
Kwaku: It really depends on who I’m speaking to. When I moved to the States racism was just being phased out so it was a strange era you know because people don’t understand you - you’re forced to speak the way they speak in order to be understood. Then when I went back to Ghana I had an accent so I had to learn ho to speak the way Ghanians spoke and I’m a Gemini so it was kinda easy to balance it out then when I went to Atlanta and they speak differently.
Tashi: Now onto Bertha and Meryl - who are you going to choose?
Kwaku: You know I just got out of the house and I’m still feeling out situations.
Tashi: I knew you were gonna brush us off.
Kwaku: I mean the house is a very difficult standard to judge a person’s individuality so I’m still sussing it out.
Tashi: So you’re saying you still don’t actually know if you like them?
Kwaku: Oh I love them, they’re beautiful people and I think I have lifelong friendships but whether we take it a step further with, heaven only knows.
Tashi: Would you still have gone for Bertha if Meryl had stayed?
Kwaku: Nothing’s impossible, there might have been a possibility, Meryl might have stepped on my toes, we might have had a blowout argument and Bertha might have been there.
Tashi: Were there already things happening between you and Bertha while Meryl was still there?
Kwaku: We definitely forged some sort of bond, I had an emotional connection with her, we talked about each others past and stuff, we’re pretty similar individuals so there was definitely something forming.
Tashi: Would you say your relationships with them were a security blanket?
Kwaku: I think the relationships that are maintained now are a security blanket.
Tashi: How are their’s different from yours?
Kwaku: If you look at the situation, I was talking to Code on Sunday and he wasn’t really feeling his situation too much granted that Maureen was being a little overbearing but I mean she’s one of the only females in the house. Now Richard and Tatiana - that seems like a pretty abusive relationship as it is.
Tashi: Urgh yes - plus there’s Richard’s wife on the outside who’s part of it.
Kwaku: Yes I’ve heard things are shaky on that. Can you blame her? All I can think is that she must love him much if she’s still holding on and that’s not what I hear, things are kinda shaky.
Tashi: I think that when housemates are in the house it’s fine to do whatever but not when it impacts on someone on the outside who has no control over what’s happening.
Kwaku: I don’t think any of us had any right to bring our loved ones into the house with us, I don’t think that’s fair.
Tashi: I totally agree. Why didn’t people talk to Richard about it more?
Kwaku: Last week I spoke to him about it and he said to me, “Well you know, this house is a different place to be so I’ll deal with the outside world when I get outside.” Whether that’s the right strategy to take that’s another situation altogether but Africa hasn’t voted him out yet so …
Tashi: Do you think he’s gonna win??
Kwaku: No my money’s on Tatianna.
Tashi: Not Ofunneka?
Kwaku: No, Tatiana. She’s very diplomatic, she has sex appeal and she’s intelligent.
Tashi: She’s been part of this relationship with Richard and she’s never mentioned his wife - do you not think people will hold that against her? Don’t you think they’ll think “She’s had an affair with a married man and didn’t twinge for a moment?”
Kwaku: She’s played it safe, I’ve never heard her talk about Richard’s situation. I talked to her last week and she said it’s comforting to be in the situation she’s in. She doesn’t know what will happen on the outside when she leaves so she’s going along for the ride.
She’s very slick - she knows how to play her cards right. The fact that she’s kept Richard at a certain - Richard’s maintained a certain docile manner around her, says a lot. Ofunneka I mean she can get kinda loud at times, loud and abrasive and I mean Tatiana’s good to look at.
Tashi: But Ofunneka’s the only one who’s done it herself, all by herself. Maybe people will give her credit for that? You're saying they're going to be voting based on what somebody looks like?
Kwaku: I think people are going to vote for the most controversial characters and when it comes to exciting I think Tatiana takes the cake.
Tashi: You’d like Tatiana to win?
Kwaku: Definitely.
Tashi: If Bertha and Meryl weren’t there would you have gone for Tatiana?
Kwaku: (laughs) No I don’t think so.
Tashi: Why?
Kwaku: I didn’t really go into the house looking for relationships.
Tashi: Says you who had two.
Kwaku: Well you know, life works in mysterious ways but I definitely didn’t go into the house looking relationships but I wasn’t gonna preclude anything happening. As far as I was concerned it was supposed to be a cleansing period for me.
Tashi: I reckon you would have gone for Tatiana. (can kick myself for not adding "if Richard wasn’t around!")
Kwaku: You think so?
Tashi: Hmm mm.
Kwaku: Well like I said, anything could have happened.
Tashi: Are you gonna be watching the show?
Kwaku: I might be too busy to but I’ll definitely try to tune in.
Tashi: When you guys chatted on Sunday night - had everyone else been watching?
Kwaku: Yes they have, like I said they said my downfall was as a result of the comment I made, it seemed like I was getting cocky and they said the house is getting boring and that the only time they tuned in was when I was active.
Ends