People who are die-hard YouTube fans have come across the ridiculously hilarious vlogs titled ‘What’s Up Africa’ or WUA# by Ikenna Azuike. The vlogs take a hit on the current happenings in Africa and give them a funny twist. That combined with the silly/funny personality of Ikenna is bound to make this a channel to easily subscribe to, to get more. This made me curious as to the man behind them, to learn more about him and what inspired the show. Luckily he turned out a good support and was excited to give Jamati an insight behind the man and the vlog.

Ikenna Azuike

Jamati: Who is Ikenna Azuike? Tell us a bit about your background?
Ikenna: Ikenna Azuike is a half Nigerian-half British, vlogger / blogger / environmentalist / entrepreneur with a weakness for jollof rice and stew.

Jamati: Your show on YouTube, ‘What’s Up Africa’ has attracted quite a following. What inspired it?
Ikenna: I got the idea to start ‘WUA‘ after watching US video blogger Ray William Johnson, he’s my inspiration for the style of the videos. I’d go as far as to say he’s defined an entire new media genre. As for the content of my show, I was inspired by one of my comedy heroes Jon Stewart of ‘The Daily Show’. I knew about lots of great blogs sharing news about cool stuff going on in Africa but couldn’t find anything offering video content or ‘The Daily Show’ style news satire, so I decided to start it myself.

Jamati: How did you decide to get into comedy?
Ikenna: It sounds a bit cheesy, but really, comedy got into me. I’ve always enjoyed being silly and making people laugh. But equally, I enjoy keeping up to date with international news, politics, art and culture. ‘WUA’ was my opportunity to combine everything into one. I pitched my idea for the show to the chief-editor of the Africa desk at Radio Netherlands Worldwide (Herman van Gelderen), he liked it and thought it had potential. I made two pilots – one was good, the other was terrible – luckily he saw through the bad one and I got the chance to make the show!

Jamati: Living in Netherlands how are you able to keep up on the current happenings in Africa and get all the juicy stories?
Ikenna: The internet. I have a few trusty blogs and websites that I check regularly and people have started to send tips into me.

Jamati: Do you plan on moving the vlogs to the screen, probably a show on tv?
Ikenna: Who knows what the future holds. I think the internet is a fantastic platform to get more exposure for the show. That said, television is still more effective than the internet in west, east and South Africa so let’s see. But wherever it’s being shown, it’s important to me that I have creative freedom – having a boss at a TV station could change that, in which case I’d rather stay on the internet.

Jamati: You were actually a lawyer at some point what happened to that?
Ikenna: I ask myself the same question sometimes. Those days feel so long ago. I enjoyed the challenges, opportunities and experiences my legal career gave me. But I am so much happier doing what I do now. Thankfully, even my dad seems to now understand my choice to move away from my career in law.

Jamati: You also run a website “Strawberry Earth” what is it about?
Ikenna: Strawberry Earth is an outlet for my other passion in life: raising awareness of environmental and social issues. It started as a blog but has since grown into a platform and community for all sorts of innovative projects to do with sustainability. We run a sustainable film-making competition, an ethical fashion and design fair and very soon we’ll be launching an e-commerce website – it’s exciting times for ‘Strawberry Earth’.

Ikenna Azuike

Jamati: What more don’t we know about Ikenna Azuike that we should?
Ikenna: Ummm… my guilty pleasure is watching episodes of British soap opera, ‘Eastenders‘. I LOVE playing football. I’m an Arsenal and, of course, Super Eagles fan (although these are dark days for both teams). I have an awesome girlfriend. Brilliant parents. Great friends. Consider myself to be a very lucky guy. Am a die-hard optimist and my favorite food is indeed jollof rice with stew.

Jamati: What should we expect in future?
Ikenna: WUA episodes filmed from all over Africa (I might be headed at least to East Africa at the end of this year). Africa road trip baby!!! BAM!!!!!

Jamati: How can people access your vlogs?
Ikenna: They can visit my YouTube channel.  And join the Facebook and Twitter groups for more WUA ridiculousness!