Today, I had the honour of interviewing a young man who once was labelled one of Africa’s most influential youtubers (2016), most influential youtuber, 3rd Best Video Content creator in Ireland in (2015) and Idle Mans magazines Man of the week (2018). Born in Malawi and Raised in the UK he started his career in 2009, with a dream of becoming a simple animator but has come a very long way to now having articles being scouted by Forbes as well as running one of Africa’s fastest growing Influencer marketing agencies Isocialite.
Give us a short biography about yourself?
My full name is Tatenda Alpha Hasha Dube. Born in a town called Blantyre in Malawi. I was raised by a single mother and her family, because she was young when she had me and I feel like it taught me the value of keeping family close.
Growing up I was always fascinated about creating content, I didn’t even really care what type of content it was, from Acting, Singing, Photography and Video I tried it all. In 2009 while trying to upload a short animation clip that I had made, I started to discover the world of YouTube and that it was a lot bigger than I had initially realised; from that moment on I became immersed into the world of Vlogging.
In Short, please tell about your brainchild ISocialite?
Isociallite is a company I launched in 2018 with my partner and friend at the time Arthur Muyepa. The idea came to me a couple years prior when I was thinking about how as youtuber Id struggle when It came to getting brand deals or even the simplest of endorsements. I wanted to fix a problem I saw that I had as an up and coming content creator.
Where there any obstacles you feel like you had to overcoming being a man of colour, whether as a youtuber or even as you launched your company?
Unfortunately, yes, especially on YouTube. As I joined the youtubing community, it wasn’t something I was blind to. It was actually very sad because it was known within the community that if you were to get the numbers you need to either a blonde chick with big boobs or as a guy you’d have to have the Justin Bieber hair cut or/and have the blue eyes. It was a crazy time. I honestly whole heartedly believe that if I wasn’t this skin tone I would have probably got further in my career. There are a LOT of black youtubers who till today still create amazing content and are very respected by some of the biggest content creators but will still never get the same numbers as the boy with the blue eyes combing his hair for 30 minutes straight.
What’s one thing about yourself that people would be surprised to find out about you?
I am always creating, I never stop. I always feel like if I was to stop coming up with content ideas I would probably go into some sort of deep state of depression. Content creation keeps me very sane.
Do you feel like this Corona virus has affected content creator in a negative way?
I don’t think it should have stopped anyone, if anything I feel like it has stopped time and given content creators extra time to work on amazing stuff.
OKAY Great! Now for a couple fun getting to know you questions.
Do you have a girlfriend, if yes, Who?
- Yes, her name is MwayiMakunganya
Boxers or Briefs?
- Boxers
Favourite Colour?
- Baby Blue
Who is your celebrity crush?
- Hazel Mak
If you could name 3 youtubers whom you still watch till today, who would they be?
- Ben Brown
- Jack Harrison (JacksGap)
- Sawyer Hartman
Top 3 favourite movies?
- HARRY POTTER
- Wolf Of Wallstreet
- Paid in Full
Top 3 favourite artists?
- Fredo
- Santan Dave
- Hazel Mak
Song you’ve had on loop over the last week?
- Young MA – Stubborn A
If you could be anywhere in the world right now where would you be?
- NANDOS
Favourite holiday destination?
- Italy
