"If you have never travelled outside Zimbabwe, stop complaining," Ghanaian YouTuber Tells Zimbabweans
A popular Ghanaian YouTuber, Wode Maya, has said that Zimbabweans who are not well-traveled should stop complaining about Zimbabwe.
Maya, who visited Zimbabwe and stayed for a month, left the country this week. He said the highlight of his visit was the discovery that Zimbabwe is a beautiful country, but that it suffers from negative perceptions peddled by the media and negative people.
Maya addressed the press in the presence of the Minister of Information and Publicity Monica Mutsvangwa and his comments on Zimbabwe were capture by the broadcaster, ZBC.
Said Maya:
If you have never travelled outside Zimbabwe, stop complaining about Zimbabwe. Because, listen, the more you travel, the more you cherish your countries. I just want to make this clear. I’ve been to 25 countries and every country i go to, I promote that country in a positive light. I think so many people were saying so many things that they do not know.
But I’m coming here and I’m just saying that Zimbabwe is not what i expected. Zimbabwe, to me, out of the 25 is the most beautiful one.
Maya was however criticised by some Zimbabweans on social media who said that he had been paid by the government to portray Zimbabwe in a positive light while ignoring the serious negative issues of governance and corruption.
Mutsvanga commented as part of the ZBC clip:
I am very happy as a minister of Information, Publicity and Broadcasting Services that we embraced this young man. We are very excited about what he’s been posting. And what he has been talking about is all positive about this country, positive about Africa. We need to talk well about our Africa and it can only be done by us Africans and that’s what Wode Maya is saying.
And it’s good that when he talks about Zimbabwe and he posts these videos as a vlogger and blogger, people who are watching, are not watching it from just a Zimbabwean or somebody from the ministry or government official. This is just a blogger, a pan-Africanist who loves Africa, who wants to make sure that those in the diaspora understand what Africa has to offer to them. So we are very happy.
Wode Maya has more than 1 million subscribers on YouTube and his several videos on Zimbabwe have been watched more than 100k times each.
