US YouTuber IShowSpeed gains Ghanaian nationality at end of Africa tour

US YouTuber and online streamer IShowSpeed is one of the most-followed influencers on the planet – Copyright AFP SEBASTIEN BOZON

Ghana has granted citizenship to US YouTuber IShowSpeed, the country’s foreign minister announced, as the influencer wraps up a month-long tour of Africa.

Foreign Minister Sam Okudzeto Ablakwa said in an X post on Monday that following “confirmation of the irrefutable ties of IShowSpeed to Ghana”, his government “has approved the issuance of a Ghanaian Passport to IShowSpeed”. 

“Keep making our great nation Ghana, and our beloved African continent proud. Ghana celebrates you,” the minister said.

The 21-year-old African American IShowSpeed — born in Cincinnati, Ohio as Darren Jason Watkins Jr. — is one of the most-followed influencers on the planet.

He hit 50 million YouTube subscribers this month, Rolling Stone magazine named him the Most Influential Creator of 2025 and Forbes estimates his net worth at $20 million.

The YouTube and Twitch star’s tour, which started on December 29, has taken him to 20 countries, showing his tens of millions of followers a different side of Africa as he visited a diamond mine in Botswana, discovered Ethiopia’s rich cuisine and attended the Africa Cup of Nations football final in Morocco.

Subscribers to his channel have soaked up his coverage of the continent, with some black Americans posting emotional videos of their own saying IShowSpeed had opened their eyes to a completely different vision of Africa, far from TV cliches of endless poverty and violence.