A U.S. streamer’s chaotic tour across several African countries has drawn millions of viewers, raising questions about who gets to show the continent to the world. Darren Jason Watkins Jr., known online as IShowSpeed, spent 28 days travelling through Algeria, Angola, Benin, Botswana, Egypt, Eswatini, Ethiopia, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Liberia, Morocco, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Clips from the tour flooded TikTok and YouTube, with fans praising his enthusiasm and critics questioning his jokes and behaviour. The trip sat at a strange crossroads. It offered raw, unscripted views of places many viewers had never seen. It also risked turning real streets and people into viral scenery for a visiting celebrity.
A Different Kind of Travel Show
Traditional television rarely shows everyday life in African cities. News segments often focus on coups, conflict or migration. Travel programmes linger on safari lodges or desert landscapes. Daily scenes in Accra, Lagos or Nairobi appear less frequently.
IShowSpeed’s streams, by contrast, dropped viewers straight into crowds, traffic and back-street pitches. Live chats filled with comments from Europe, North America and Asia reacting in real time to football games, food stalls and improvised dances. One viewer commented during the Ethiopia stream: “I genuinely had no idea Ethiopia looked like this.”
For many young viewers, this was their first sustained exposure to these places outside crisis headlines. The tone was messy and hyperactive, but it did show a continent full of teenagers joking, hustling and hanging out rather than a permanent disaster zone. In Eswatini, IShowSpeed was inducted into the Umbutfo warriors and given the honorary name “Logijimako” (The One Who Runs) during a traditional ceremony.
Stereotypes in Real Time
At the same time, the format carried familiar problems. Jokes about dirt, chaos or “craziness” risked reinforcing clichés that long predate streaming. Social media users from across the continent pointed out moments where locals were treated more as props than as partners.
Online criticism did not always come from the usual commentators. Many were young Africans who grew up with the same platforms and understood both the power and the danger of being “content” for someone else’s channel. Their responses suggest a shift. Instead of passively accepting outside narratives, they annotated the visit in real time, praising genuine curiosity and calling out lazy humour.
Who Holds the Camera
The tour also exposed an older imbalance. High-profile streamers from wealthy countries can travel, film and monetise their trips with relative ease. Local creators often work with weaker internet connections, fewer sponsors and smaller audiences. IShowSpeed has over 33 million YouTube subscribers and won Streamer of the Year at both the 2024 and 2025 Streamer Awards.
Yet some of the most engaging moments came when IShowSpeed partnered with African streamers, footballers or musicians who already had their own followings. The energy changed once the camera was shared rather than imposed. That dynamic points towards a different future for online maps of the continent.
A Chance to Redraw the Map
None of this makes one streamer uniquely good or bad. The episode simply concentrates wider trends. Digital platforms have made it easier for individuals to see far-off places, but they have not automatically fixed who gets to narrate them.
For young viewers in Europe and elsewhere, the choice now is no longer between ignorance and a single Western documentary. They can bounce from an excitable US channel to a Kenyan vlogger, a Nigerian food critic or a Senegalese gamer in a few taps. The more they do that, the less any one tour can stand as “Africa” as a whole.
After the Tour Ends
If IShowSpeed’s trip has any lasting value, it lies in demonstrating that millions of teenagers will watch everyday African streets for hours at a time. He spent New Year’s Eve in Cape Town and Johannesburg, drawing massive crowds. In South Africa, he tried car spinning, learned amapiano dance moves and had a close encounter with a cheetah.
Audiences now choose whose perspective matters. Local streamers gain followers when visitors share their channels. Young Africans control their own narratives when they respond, correct and add context in real time. The continent becomes less of a spectacle and more of a conversation, with multiple voices rather than a single tour guide deciding what counts as authentic.
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