Anarchadium Waves Goodbye
The YouTube to TV pipeline
In a now deleted tweet, Menzi ‘Anarchadium’ Mzimela, briefly expressed his current state of mind as it pertains to his creative journey. In the tweet he says he no longer has a desire to pursue any creative endeavors and wants to focus on being a ‘professional friend’.
Although this tweet did not come as a surprise to me as Mzimela has significantly decreased his creative output on YouTube for a few years now, it was still a sore point to think we might never get another Anarchadium original creation on YouTube again.
When Anarchadium, the channel and the person, really took off and began getting sponsored or brand work, he set up a company through which he would run his creative business. The company ‘Anarchadium’ who’s sole director is Mzimela himself is now in the process of deregistration. The decision to deregister the company is another indicator that Mzimela no longer intends to pursue any personal creative projects.
Looking at the YouTube channel — the last series of videos uploaded on the channel was the Sisterhood of The Travelling Mgowo (SMgowo) podcast which was last of Mzimela’s creative projects on YouTube. A year ago, there was a decision to set up a separate channel for the podcast and episodes would no longer be uploaded on the Anarchadium channel. When this happened, it did not raise flags that Mzimela was gearing up to put the channel to bed as it seemed the podcast had grow so big it only made sense to create a separate channel for it.
Thinking about it now, Micowave Boys — which was another one of Mzimela’s internet sensation shows was much bigger than SMgowo and the episodes of Microwave Boys were all hosted on the Anarchadium channel. Therefore the argument that the SMgowo grew ‘too big’ for the channel does not hold water because there have been bigger shows on the channel and there has not been a need to create separate channels for those shows.
To round it all up, the tweet by Mzimela, the inactivity on the YouTube channel and deregistration of the Anarchadium company all point to the fact that Mzimela is really putting his personal creative projects to rest.
There is a lingering thought I have that the class of YouTubers who came on the scene with Mzimela will always choose traditional media platforms like tv and film over YouTube and I want to use this piece to explore that thought.
The interesting thing about the early creator adopters of YouTube in South Africa is that many of them did not start making YouTube videos with the intention of becoming Youtubers.
Mihlali Ndamase, the biggest beauty and lifestyle YouTuber and influencer in South Africa has said she started making YouTube videos as a mere creative outlet and that her ultimate goal was to work for a beauty brand. The women of Pap Culture significantly decreased their content output on YouTube when they all secured full time jobs at news agencies and advertising agencies. George ‘Okay Wasabi’ Mngumi basically stopped making YouTube videos as soon as he secured tv gigs. Even as far as Moshe Ndiki and Farieda Metsileng, these creators completely stopped uploading videos on YouTube when they got jobs on tv and radio.
All these creators started making content on YouTube either as just a creative outlet or as an elaborate audition to ultimately end up on a traditional media platform. in 2016 — when some of these creators were in their prime, it was hardly a thought that this could be a viable career path. It makes sense then that these creators always had their eyes set on migrating to a traditional media platform where there was greater guarantee of making a viable career.
Mzimela is one such creator who made content on YouTube to train his creative muscle and sharpen his tool box. Shortly after graduating university, he secured employment with a production house and has worked in different positions from editor to creative producer. One of the production houses Mzimela has worked for makes shows for BET Africa.
From a strategy point of view, many of these creators got what they wanted which is a career in traditional media. However they leave something behind — a large fan base that wants to continue consuming their creative endeavors.
There is a distinct difference between a personality on YouTube and on a traditional media platform. On YouTube, Mzimela has complete autonomy over the creative direction of any of his projects. It is his creativity coupled with the unrestricted freedom to create that has landed him as one of the most respected creatives on South African YouTube. It is incredibly difficult to translate that onto television as there are a myriad of restrictions on one persons creativity on tv.
The move from YouTube to traditional media by Mzimela (and other creators) means we will never be able to experience the full creative genius of these creators again because there will always be restrictions to what they are able to do on traditional media platforms.
I want to make it clear that the intention of this piece is not to mark YouTubers who are transitioning into traditional media as ‘sell outs’ or ‘traitors to the movement’. What I do want to say is that it has always been many of these creators vision to transition into traditional media but that transition means we may never again experience their full creative abilities due to the restrictions of traditional tv.
That said, Mzimela’s contribution to the YouTube scene in South Africa is invaluable. The likes of Mzimela, Sibu Mpanza, Mihlali Ndamase and Moyin Oloruntoba practically built the creator culture that is the ‘norm’ today in South African YouTube culture. None of this would exist if it was not for their tireless work of getting consumers of YouTube content and brands to recognize this as a legitimate platform that has value for both consumer and corporate.
Although Mzimela’s work will live on the platform forever, it is a sore thought that he is potentially saying goodbye to his creative projects specifically on YouTube.
