‘Watching us is like watching a cousin’: the online creators reshaping Africa’s news ecosphere | Africa

L.Amahle-Imvelo Jaxa last year posted a TikTok video About South African peacekeepers in the Democratic Republic of Congo. He described a debate between the presidents of South Africa and Rwanda, then listed the roles different South African groups would play in a war with Rwanda: Sotho strategists, Xhosa negotiators, Afrikaner power. The video went viral and reached 100,000 followers within three days.

This groundbreaking video catapulted Jaxa from a marketing and restaurant entrepreneur to a “professional chatter and current affairs enthusiast” who is part of a group of content creators explaining the news to young South Africans who, like many of their global peers, are eschewing traditional news in favor of social media.

According to the 2025 global report Digital News Report According to the Reuters Institute, social media users in South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria (the three African countries surveyed) were much more likely to pay attention to news creators than their counterparts in Northern Europe and Japan.

In Nigeria, 61% of respondents said they pay attention to news creators, with Kenya (58%) just ahead, while Kenya was well ahead of third-placed Indonesia at 44%. In South Africa, this rate was 39%.

Three African countries also ranked in the top four of those surveyed for a metric aimed at assessing the influence of news creators on social media users.

Guardian reporters spoke to news influencers and analysts in three countries for their views on changing habits.

South Africa

Jaxa, 32, began posting explanatory videos after an argument with her brother, who is 10 years her junior, over not voting. He realized that “the generation that came after me was very indifferent.”

“That was very concerning to me because they are the next leaders,” he said.

Jaxa sees himself as an interpreter of news for younger generations, not a substitute: “If there is no traditional media, I do not exist, because… all the content I make comes from traditional media.”

Jaxa, who has degrees in philosophy, politics and economics, and international relations, has recently tackled the following topics: Iran warSouth African president’s annual state of the nation address And budgetThe last one is sponsored by a bank. But he makes most of his money from brand partnerships instagrampublishes less news content.

Sisanda Nkoala, associate professor at the University of the Western Cape, said news in South Africa was consumed en masse via radio or television. “The experience of media as a place where people gather to watch the evening news has changed,” he said.

He expressed concern that the shift to online news was widening South Africa’s digital divide. inside 2022 census21% of households, mostly in rural areas, reported having no internet access.

Kenya

Valerie Keter stumbled into news creation by accident after watching Shaka iLembe, a South African historical drama series about King Shaka of the Zulu Kingdom in 2023. As a history buff who grew up watching international historical programs, he was amazed by the quality and accuracy of the production and shared: a reaction video On TikTok, she describes the show as an example of how to preserve African stories for future generations. The incident took off as curious people started asking questions about other kingdoms in pre-colonial Africa in the comments section.

Keter took this as a challenge and began producing videos about African history from different countries on the continent – ​​including explainers and retellings of embedded stories – and posting them online.

He is part of a class of independent news creators in Kenya who use social and video platforms to reach audiences unengaged in traditional media.

Kenya’s young population and high level of social media usage are behind their success. a study The report published by the Kenya Media Council on May 4 stated that most Kenyans trust social media as a source of news.

Today, Keter’s Instagram and TikTok accounts have dozens of videos and millions of views. The most popular video titled “Why Did Europe Easily Colonize Africa?”It has 3.7 million views on Instagram.

The 31-year-old actor said that his main audience is people between the ages of 25-34. “When they watch us, it’s like they’re watching their cousins, their sisters,” he said. “I also shoot in my living room or my kitchen. It seems normal compared to traditional media where everything is so serious.”

Norbert Mburu, head of culture and media research at Odipo Dev, a Nairobi-based data analytics and research company Examined news consumption in KenyaHe said social media has democratized participation in the attention economy and news creators are now competing on the same level as legacy media.

“They grew up with mobile phones, they grew up with the internet, they grew up with social media,” he said. “It has become very natural for them.”

Mburu said news creators were also able to deliver news more flexibly than established news organisations. “They need to worry a lot less about regulation,he added.

Nigeria

Bello “Dan Bello” Galadanchi described himself as a news junkie after Boko Haram bombed a UN building in Abuja in 2011. The graphic images of the dead kept the then-senior engineering student in far-flung Pennsylvania awake, prompting him to apply to work with Voice of America (VOA) in Washington, DC. “I felt that I could also play a role and help in the media [the bombing] “Draw attention,” he said. “That’s how I started. “This really changed my life.”

He amassed thousands of followers at VOA and later BBC Hausa, who remained when he left journalism to further his work in China. Today, the 38-year-old Beijing teacher’s videos in Hausa, Nigeria’s most spoken language, with English subtitles, the official language, blend satirical analysis of current events with advocacy aimed squarely at government officials.

Nigerians in the country and in the diaspora are obsessed with news and politics, and Galadanchi is among the super influencers with over 2 million followers on TikTok. In northern Nigeria and parts of Niger, it has an almost fanatical following among youth and unemployed housewives of all ages.

Operating as an informal news network, Galadanchi relies on a staff of two and a team of volunteers comprising professors and other acquaintances from within and outside Nigeria. They source and verify information before making it available to the public. The team’s revelations led to the release of indiscriminate detainees, the payment of back wages to government employees, and the renovation of dilapidated schools.

Galadanchi denies accusations that he was backed by the opposition to speak out against ruling party officials and was used by the northern establishment against southern politicians. “When you look at the studies we’ve done, you won’t find any evidence of this,” he said.

David Adeleke, managing director of Lagos-based media and intelligence firm Communiqué, said the shift to editorial platforms, or platforms that combine social commentary with advocacy and comedy, is driven by a shift in consumption habits. “There aren’t that many people sitting in front of television or radio in urban areas… they are now more familiar and more confident in new ways of storytelling,” he said.

The viral #EndSars anti-police brutality protests in October 2020 were also a turning point. Adeleke said the mainstream media was seen as cautious in its reporting, perhaps because broadcast regulators “were much tougher on the media with the last two administrations”. “These new media platforms were platforms that sort of ‘speaked up’ on behalf of young people… because so many people across the country felt alone or almost powerless.”