cmake was invented as a portable way to create makefiles. If you want to take a look at an alternative, check out bjam from boost . This tool works with many toolboxes (the so-called toolbox in bjam terminology) and is pretty easy to use since cmake is.
If you really want to get rid of cmake or bjam, then write your own makefiles using those that cmake created as a base, for example ... But this will limit the amount of systems and toolkits that your code will compile on, to be honest , I would rather think that as a pain and urge you to use bjam if you need more effective support for other tools.