Since it was founded 16 years ago, YouTube has become the world’s largest online video sharing platform. Africans are embracing the platform both as consumers and creators. From making short films and web series to product reviews, lifestyle, travel, financial tips and tech hacks African creators are diving in. The Zambian market over the last seven years has seen the emergence of many YouTubers showcasing their lives, their careers and much more. Here are a few of the must watch YouTube channels created by Zambians:
BongoHive
As Zambia’s first technology and innovation hub, “BongoHive has provided a range of entrepreneurship and tech programmes, workshops and industry events focused on making Zambia a leader in innovation.” Their YouTube Channel has a wide playlist consisting of BongoHive talks and interviews, entrepreneurship webinars, content on finance and FinTech and insights into the organisation’s tech incubator programmes. During the pandemic BongoHive was at the forefront of hosting webinars across various industries as well as student-focused webinars that they uploaded onto their channel. This not only helped people who were working from home learn more but it also refreshed and updated their knowledge base. Watch the BongoHive YouTube channel if you want to learn more about different industries, if you are interested in signing up for any of their incubator programmes and if you have a passion for entrepreneurship and tech
https://youtube.com/c/BongoHive
Featured image (l): The BongoHive team
Jayne Mazimba
Jayne started her journey as a fashion and lifestyle blogger. She quickly realised that she could incorporate her background in finance in her online content. This led to the birth of her YouTube channel, Jayne Mazimba, where she focuses on personal development, finance and fashion. When it comes to finance, Jayne shares what she has learned as part of her series Relationships and Money. In her other series, Money & Me, she speaks to financial experts.
This is an excellent channel for millennials and anyone who might be moderately financially illiterate and wants to learn more. Her episodes on debt management, savings and spending have definitely had an impact on her viewers and can spare them from having to learn the hard way. Conversations surrounding financial mismanagement give viewers the tools on how to better manage their money.
Jayne shares, “I started the YouTube channel as an extension of Facebook and Instagram. This came from my personal journey from 2018 when I was in a lot of debt. I decided to put myself on a journey to becoming debt free, and in walking that path I learned a lot of stuff and as I shared with my friends, they asked me questions. I realised there was a gap in knowledge, information that we didn’t have as individuals that existed in the market.” With the pandemic, Jayne has pivoted into paid one-on-one sessions to help clients manage their money and achieve financial success.
https://youtube.com/c/JayneMazimba
Nyemba Tembo
Nyemba Tembo’s channel is a lifestyle channel for the cool kids. In her words, “I feel like there is a little bit of everything for everybody.” She was inspired to start her channel because of her own love of YouTube content as well as moving back to Zambia and looking for a way to connect and find like-minded people. YouTube provided the perfect platform for Nyemba at a time when she felt like an outsider. Her content features her local and international travels, relatable life update vlogs about her personal experiences and videos on skin care routines. Nyemba is giving millennials content they can relate to as they go through the same things that she does as a young 20-something year old Zambian. (Image by Raphael Tembo)
https://youtube.com/c/NyembaTembo
Mr Mulos
Mr Mulos is a YouTube channel that offers tech tips and reviews with a strong focus on the FinTech industry. After working in a bank for 13 years in foreign exchange and remittances, Mulonda Singongi, aka Mr Mulos, tried to set up an online business and noticed that the biggest problem he had was getting paid. “All my pay was basically coming into PayPal and I couldn’t spend it so I was just buying bundles and talk time, going to expensive lengths to change it from dollars into kwacha.”
After ranting about the lack of African and Zambian YouTubers on YouTube talking about tech and finance he was challenged to start his own channel with whatever resources he had at the time. From there his YouTube channel was born, with the first videos on how to set up a Payoneer account from Zambia as well as TPIN registration online. The feedback was positive and from there the FinTech videos were born and then in mid-2020 he was able to monetise his channel, an amazing feat for any local YouTuber. The channel has also found sponsorship from various companies. Some of the most helpful and widely loved videos deal with how to use eCurrency in Zambia, NAPSA, ZRA, as well as how to transfer money from your Airtel Money account into your FNB account. This channel has the best shortcuts and hacks for FinTech, explained simply and paired with visual tutorials.
Channel Yellow
Channel Yellow is a lifestyle channel that promotes Zambian travel. The main purpose of the channel is to celebrate young, Zambian millennials who are doing great things and to highlight Zambian culture. Adele Makayi and Beliya Ndhlovu use this platform to showcase the beauty and uniqueness of Zambia, as well as creating content that can inspire others to go after their dreams. Content ranges from travel vlogs showcasing the beauty of Zambia, to vlogs about self-care and empowerment, skin care, behind the scenes of the work that they do and more. This fun channel is authentic, informative, introspective, inspirational and a must watch.
https://youtube.com/c/ChannelYellow
Kuthuta Yoga
Towani Clarke is the founder of Kuthuta Yoga, which over the last ten years became a staple name in Zambia for anyone in the health and wellness world. After relocating to America, she decided to set up a Youtube channel for her yoga practice called Kuthuta Yoga. Towani offers classes, courses and retreats. Towani shares, “Kuthuta Yoga offers mid-tempo paced classes in the traditional hatha style, great for beginners, intermediate yogis or for refining your alignment while sticking to the ethos of yoga to bring together body, mind and spirit.” Over the last year of the pandemic with many people struggling with mental health and isolation, yoga has been a perfect way to reconnect with oneself and heal old traumas as well as find a way to navigate the new normal.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSfM7dVEAUzhdhMH5s1UkUw
As YouTube becomes more accessible for young people in Africa and a platform that many are able to use to launch a career on, it will be interesting to see how Zambian content fits in. YouTube has quickly become the number one platform for African digital content, especially among Nigerian, Ghanaian, Kenyan and South African creators. One can only hope that in the years to come Zambian creators will make a bigger, globally recognized mark on YouTube.
