I use sarcasm to fight African stereotypes– Content creator, Ekezie

Content creator, Charity Ekezie, has 846,000 followers on Instagram. She tells PELUMI KAZEEM about her career, combating negative stereotypes about Africa with sarcasm, and other issues

How would you describe yourself beyond the content creator seen on social media?

For people discovering me for the first time, I am, a journalist. I studied Mass Communication, and worked at a radio station for a couple of years as a presenter and newscaster before venturing into content creation.

I started creating content in 2014. Initially, it was mostly for mobile consumption and my personal enjoyment before I got the courage to start posting online on Facebook and Instagram. I used to post skits occasionally before I officially joined TikTok in 2020.

I am the only girl in a family of three children. I was raised in Cameroon, though I wasn’t born there. I had my nursery and primary education there before returning to Nigeria. My family still lives there though but I am fully Nigerian.

You have built a unique identity around using humour and sarcasm to talk about Africa. How did you arrive at this style of content?

It took a while. I had been posting on social media for a long time, but I wasn’t really exposed to what people thought about Africa because my content wasn’t reaching the numbers it does now. I wasn’t reaching audiences on the other side of the world, so nobody was asking me crazy questions until I joined TikTok.

I joined TikTok during the COVID-19 lockdown in 2020, and the algorithm pushed some of my videos to a huge audience. I started getting a lot of questions about Africa, but I didn’t initially understand that those were genuine questions. I thought they were jokes because some of them were even racist remarks that I didn’t understand.

In 2021, I made a viral video encouraging people to visit Africa. I was following a trend someone had created, where the person wore different clothes representing different regions in Africa to encourage people to visit.

When I did mine, I realised that a lot of people started asking me “crazy” questions, and they were actually serious. They would ask, “Do you have water in Africa?” “If you’re telling us to visit Africa, it’s very dangerous over there. What are we going to eat when we come because I know you guys don’t have food?” Some even said, “You live on trees. You live in the jungle.”

When I started seeing these questions towards the end of 2021, I decided I needed to respond, but I didn’t know how. I made one basic video saying, “Oh yes, we have houses in Africa, we have buildings, we don’t live in a jungle,” but the video didn’t really go far.

I then realised that the best way to respond was with sarcasm, especially when the questions became annoying. I wanted to respond in a mean way without actually sounding mean.

As Nigerians, we say, “If you ask a stupid question, you get a stupid response.” So, I decided that sarcasm was the best way to tell people they were being ignorant without calling them dumb.

My first sarcastic video was on January 4, 2022. I made the first response about how people get water in Africa, and the video went viral.

What was the moment you realised that people were beginning to take your content seriously?

People started taking my content seriously from the beginning, especially the sarcastic content, because, thankfully, the algorithm pushed the videos to a huge global audience, including non-Africans.

In my videos, I would sometimes say, “Oh, we don’t have tissue paper in Africa,” while having a whole bunch of tissue paper behind me. At the same time, I made sure there was some form of subtle education in the background or in the captions at the end of the video. I wanted people to understand the truth because some people don’t understand sarcasm.

People would see me saying there was no water while there was a tap running behind me. They would say things like, “Oh my God, since I was growing up, I’ve always believed that Africa had nothing. I’ve always been taught that Africa is just dry land.”

I would see people in their 60s telling me that they had always believed Africa had nothing and was just dry land. They would say that seeing me living in a house, having cars and all these things was surprising because that wasn’t what they had been taught.

That was when I realised people were taking the content seriously. I received comments like that from some of my earliest posts.

Which stereotype do you find the most frustrating?

I wouldn’t even call it a stereotype. I think it’s a general assumption that is a problem among a lot of people. Many people think Africa is a country. To me, that is not even a stereotype; it is pure ignorance.

That’s the most frustrating thing. I get comments such as, “Do Africans ride animals to school?” “Do you have a lion in your backyard?” or “Do you live in the jungle?” Those questions are annoying, but they are still understandable because they are stereotypes you can actually talk about.

But, saying Africa is a country is worse because it sounds like people didn’t pay attention in geography class. Africa is the second-largest continent in the world, and to reduce it to something as small as a country is crazy.

It’s very frustrating, and I’m glad people like us are speaking up to change those narratives.

What is the funniest question a foreigner has ever asked you about Africa?

Someone once asked me, “Where is Wakanda in Africa?” Actually, it wasn’t even a question. I think I saw a video where someone was asked to name different cities in Africa, and they named Wakanda. They think it is really, and not a fictional place created in Hollywood.

Another ridiculous question I’ve heard, and I say this all the time, is, “Do you still eat humans in Africa?” I received that question way back in 2022, and it was one of the questions that really shook me. I’ve received a lot of crazy questions about Africa, but that one was the worst.

What is one opinion about social media that you hold strongly, even though other creators may disagree with you?

I believe social media is not real life. Yes, it shows aspects of our reality and exposes us to the world. You can reach the ends of the earth through social media, but at the end of the day, what people are actually going through in their lives doesn’t always show up online.

I believe your actual life shouldn’t be completely on display on social media because you don’t know who is watching. You shouldn’t put yourself in a vulnerable position. People might see someone’s life online and assume it is perfect, forgetting that they are human beings who are probably going through things too.

I made the conscious decision from day one that I was just going to put out good content, tell African stories, promote the continent, be sarcastic and make my jokes, while keeping my personal life private.

What is the major problem in the content-creation space?

I wouldn’t say there is one major problem with content creation itself. The way it is perceived is part of the problem. I have seen content creators trying to work in public spaces and being forced to leave or pay money, even though content creation is now a legitimate career.

As long as creators are not constituting a nuisance or disrupting people’s peace, I think they should be allowed to express themselves creatively. Many Nigerians have turned to content creation because of the difficulty of finding jobs and making a living.

Another major issue is inadequate compensation. Many Nigerian and African creators are not paid for the content they produce, even when it goes viral. There are few platforms that share meaningful revenue with African creators.

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It is frustrating because many global trends originate from Nigerian and African creators, yet creators elsewhere can monetise those trends while the people who started them often get nothing. These are some of the major challenges I see in the industry.

Has becoming recognisable online changed the way people relate with you?

I don’t get recognised in Nigeria as much because my content is mostly for a global audience. My audience is largely from the United States. In fact, Americans make up my largest audience across all my platforms. More than 50 to 60 per cent of my followers are Americans, followed by Germans, Indians, Filipinos, Canadians and people from the United Kingdom.

My audience is international. I am more popular in some of those countries than in Nigeria. So, when I go out in Nigeria, I’m actually a regular person. It’s only a few people who have come across my content who recognise me.

I don’t get recognised here as much as I do when I travel outside the country. When I step out of Nigeria, I sometimes get noticed at airports.

It’s still not excessive because I haven’t travelled to most of the countries where I have an audience. So, it’s normal for me.

I’m living a good and normal life, and I thank God for that because I don’t get judged or looked at differently. I just go about my day and mind my business.

The few people who recognise me in Nigeria are usually conversational. We talk about my content, make jokes, and take pictures if they want.

How has your journalism background shaped the way you approach content creation?

Journalism has shaped the way I approach content creation because it taught me to do more research.

Most of my content is usually sarcastic, but I also create factual and informative content. Once in a while, I share facts and information about a particular African country, the continent or a specific tribe or ethnicity.

I always have to read and go online to do a deep dive into these subjects. Sometimes, I have to call people who live in those countries or send them messages and ask questions about their country, tribe or ethnicity. They then explain those things to me in detail.

As a content creator who is also a consumer of content, whenever I see news that isn’t factual or hasn’t been verified, I don’t indulge in it.

I make sure I wait for credible news agencies to release the information before I share it on my page or talk about it, if it’s something I feel I need to discuss.

What is one lesson social media has taught you about people?

People will project onto you whatever they believe about you or themselves, even when you are simply trying to do something positive.

There are also good things social media has taught me about people. People can be kind, accepting and willing to learn.

But, the projection often comes through the negativity that content creators cannot escape. There is always someone behind a phone, sometimes anonymously, spewing negativity.

I have learnt that some of these people may be projecting their own problems or insecurities onto others. If they are happy, they project happiness; if they are unhappy, they may project that too.

At the end of the day, you cannot control how people perceive you. They see what they choose to see, sometimes based on their own experiences and problems.

What has content creation given you that you never expected?

I would say a source of livelihood.

When I started creating content, I never thought it would become a source of income. I was doing it for fun and as a way of expressing myself, because I’m a very expressive person.

I started creating content more than 10 years ago, so making money was not the motivation.

Over time, especially from 2022, when my videos started doing well on TikTok and other platforms, brands began reaching out to me. I started getting paid for brand deals, advertisements, collaborations and other forms of support.

It has really helped me pay my bills because I stopped working as a journalist a long time ago. Before my social media career picked up, I didn’t have a consistent source of income, and it was difficult to sustain myself.

So, content creation has given me financial stability and a means of making a living.

What is the next big thing you would like to achieve outside social media?

Growing my social media audience is still a major goal because I want to reach as many people as possible. But another big ambition is to venture back into journalism in some form.

It doesn’t necessarily have to be television or working for a traditional media organisation. I have always loved broadcasting, and I hope to have my own show someday.

It has been a dream of mine to host a programme that revolves around Africa. I don’t know exactly what it will look like yet. It’s something I’m still manifesting, but hopefully, it will take shape in an elaborate way.

My second goal is to travel to as many African countries as possible and bring Africa to the world.

Sometimes, funding limits how much we can travel, which makes it difficult for me to visit different African countries. I’m hoping to get to a point where I can travel across the continent, document my experiences and share them with the world.