{"id":4155,"date":"2026-01-29T23:26:02","date_gmt":"2026-01-29T23:26:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/home\/ghana-grants-its-citizenship-to-american-youtuber-ishowspeed"},"modified":"2026-01-30T00:33:45","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T00:33:45","slug":"ghana-grants-its-citizenship-to-american-youtuber-ishowspeed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/culture-and-art\/ghana-grants-its-citizenship-to-american-youtuber-ishowspeed","title":{"rendered":"Ghana Grants its Citizenship to American Youtuber \u201cIshowspeed\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span class=\"ap-article-header-tag\"> <strong>Africa-Press. <\/strong> <\/span>Ghana announced that it has granted citizenship to American YouTuber and content creator Darren Jason Watkins Jr., known as \u201cIShowSpeed,\u201d following his recent visit to the country as part of his \u201cSpeed Does Africa\u201d tour.<\/p>\n<p>Ghanaian Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa disclosed that the country approved issuing a Ghanaian passport to the 21-year-old creator, describing him as a \u201crespectable ambassador\u201d who presented the country positively to a broad global audience.<\/p>\n<p>The minister said the decision came after the \u201cconfirmation of the undeniable ties between IShowSpeed and Ghana,\u201d noting that his mother is originally from there\u2014something he confirmed during a live broadcast when he described being in Ghana as feeling like returning home.<\/p>\n<p>During his visit, IShowSpeed took part in multiple cultural activities. Traditional leaders welcomed him in the town of Akropong in the Akuapem area and gave him a traditional name, \u201cBerrima Kofi Akufo,\u201d during an official naming ceremony.<\/p>\n<p>Videos circulated online showing him wearing traditional attire while elders performed symbolic rituals. He also visited several prominent sites and cultural landmarks in the country, sharing his firsthand experience with millions of followers across his digital platforms.<\/p>\n<p><b>A wide African tour<\/b><\/p>\n<p>The Ghana visit is part of the \u201cSpeed Does Africa\u201d tour, which included several countries such as Nigeria, Liberia, Rwanda, and Ethiopia. The tour drew large crowds, with thousands of young people gathering to meet him at different stops.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIShowSpeed\u201d is regarded as one of the most prominent digital influencers of his generation, with more than 50 million YouTube subscribers and 45 million Instagram followers. Rolling Stone recently named him the \u201cmost influential content creator of 2025,\u201d while Forbes estimated his net worth at around $20 million.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ap-article-footer-note\">Find more news and analyses on <span class=\"ap-highlight-country\">Africa<\/span> on the <span class=\"ap-highlight-brand\">Africa Press<\/span> website<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press. Ghana announced that it has granted citizenship to American YouTuber and content creator Darren Jason Watkins Jr., known as \u201cIShowSpeed,\u201d following his recent visit to the country as part of his \u201cSpeed Does Africa\u201d tour. Ghanaian Foreign Minister Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa disclosed that the country approved issuing a Ghanaian passport to the 21-year-old creator, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":4154,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[120],"class_list":{"0":"post-4155","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture-and-art","8":"tag-africa"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Ghana Grants its Citizenship to American Youtuber \u201cIshowspeed\u201d - Africa Press English<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"-article-header-tag&quot;&gt; Africa-Press. Ghana announced that it has granted citiz ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/culture-and-art\/ghana-grants-its-citizenship-to-american-youtuber-ishowspeed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Ghana Grants its Citizenship to American Youtuber \u201cIshowspeed\u201d\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"-article-header-tag&quot;&gt; Africa-Press. Ghana announced that it has granted citiz ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/culture-and-art\/ghana-grants-its-citizenship-to-american-youtuber-ishowspeed\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Africa Press English\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-01-29T23:26:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-01-30T00:33:45+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/africa-home\/sites\/69\/2026\/01\/sm_1769733150.779714.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1556\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1167\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/culture-and-art\/ghana-grants-its-citizenship-to-american-youtuber-ishowspeed#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/culture-and-art\/ghana-grants-its-citizenship-to-american-youtuber-ishowspeed\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Ghana Grants its Citizenship to American Youtuber \u201cIshowspeed\u201d\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-01-29T23:26:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-30T00:33:45+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/culture-and-art\/ghana-grants-its-citizenship-to-american-youtuber-ishowspeed\"},\"wordCount\":295,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/culture-and-art\/ghana-grants-its-citizenship-to-american-youtuber-ishowspeed#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/africa-home\/sites\/69\/2026\/01\/sm_1769733150.779714.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Culture and Art\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/culture-and-art\/ghana-grants-its-citizenship-to-american-youtuber-ishowspeed#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/culture-and-art\/ghana-grants-its-citizenship-to-american-youtuber-ishowspeed\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/culture-and-art\/ghana-grants-its-citizenship-to-american-youtuber-ishowspeed\",\"name\":\"Ghana Grants its Citizenship to American Youtuber \u201cIshowspeed\u201d - Africa Press English\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/culture-and-art\/ghana-grants-its-citizenship-to-american-youtuber-ishowspeed#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/culture-and-art\/ghana-grants-its-citizenship-to-american-youtuber-ishowspeed#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/africa-home\/sites\/69\/2026\/01\/sm_1769733150.779714.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-01-29T23:26:02+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-01-30T00:33:45+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"-article-header-tag\\\"> Africa-Press. Ghana announced that it has granted citiz ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/culture-and-art\/ghana-grants-its-citizenship-to-american-youtuber-ishowspeed#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/culture-and-art\/ghana-grants-its-citizenship-to-american-youtuber-ishowspeed\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/culture-and-art\/ghana-grants-its-citizenship-to-american-youtuber-ishowspeed#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/africa-home\/sites\/69\/2026\/01\/sm_1769733150.779714.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/africa-home\/sites\/69\/2026\/01\/sm_1769733150.779714.jpg\",\"width\":1556,\"height\":1167,\"caption\":\"Ghana Grants its Citizenship to American Youtuber \u201cIshowspeed\u201d\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/culture-and-art\/ghana-grants-its-citizenship-to-american-youtuber-ishowspeed#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Ghana Grants its Citizenship to American Youtuber \u201cIshowspeed\u201d\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/\",\"name\":\"Africa Press English\",\"description\":\"\u0623\u0648\u0644 \u0645\u0648\u0642\u0639 \u0625\u0641\u0631\u064a\u0642\u064a \u064a\u0643\u062a\u0628 \u0628\u0644\u063a\u0629 \u0628\u0644\u062f\u0627\u0646\u0647\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Ghana Grants its Citizenship to American Youtuber \u201cIshowspeed\u201d - Africa Press English","description":"-article-header-tag\"> Africa-Press. Ghana announced that it has granted citiz ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/culture-and-art\/ghana-grants-its-citizenship-to-american-youtuber-ishowspeed","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Ghana Grants its Citizenship to American Youtuber \u201cIshowspeed\u201d","og_description":"-article-header-tag\"> Africa-Press. Ghana announced that it has granted citiz ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/culture-and-art\/ghana-grants-its-citizenship-to-american-youtuber-ishowspeed","og_site_name":"Africa Press English","article_published_time":"2026-01-29T23:26:02+00:00","article_modified_time":"2026-01-30T00:33:45+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1556,"height":1167,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/africa-home\/sites\/69\/2026\/01\/sm_1769733150.779714.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/culture-and-art\/ghana-grants-its-citizenship-to-american-youtuber-ishowspeed#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/culture-and-art\/ghana-grants-its-citizenship-to-american-youtuber-ishowspeed"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Ghana Grants its Citizenship to American Youtuber \u201cIshowspeed\u201d","datePublished":"2026-01-29T23:26:02+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-30T00:33:45+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/culture-and-art\/ghana-grants-its-citizenship-to-american-youtuber-ishowspeed"},"wordCount":295,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/culture-and-art\/ghana-grants-its-citizenship-to-american-youtuber-ishowspeed#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/africa-home\/sites\/69\/2026\/01\/sm_1769733150.779714.jpg","keywords":["Africa"],"articleSection":["Culture and Art"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/culture-and-art\/ghana-grants-its-citizenship-to-american-youtuber-ishowspeed#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/culture-and-art\/ghana-grants-its-citizenship-to-american-youtuber-ishowspeed","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/culture-and-art\/ghana-grants-its-citizenship-to-american-youtuber-ishowspeed","name":"Ghana Grants its Citizenship to American Youtuber \u201cIshowspeed\u201d - Africa Press English","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/culture-and-art\/ghana-grants-its-citizenship-to-american-youtuber-ishowspeed#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/culture-and-art\/ghana-grants-its-citizenship-to-american-youtuber-ishowspeed#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/africa-home\/sites\/69\/2026\/01\/sm_1769733150.779714.jpg","datePublished":"2026-01-29T23:26:02+00:00","dateModified":"2026-01-30T00:33:45+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"-article-header-tag\"> Africa-Press. Ghana announced that it has granted citiz ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/culture-and-art\/ghana-grants-its-citizenship-to-american-youtuber-ishowspeed#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/culture-and-art\/ghana-grants-its-citizenship-to-american-youtuber-ishowspeed"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/culture-and-art\/ghana-grants-its-citizenship-to-american-youtuber-ishowspeed#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/africa-home\/sites\/69\/2026\/01\/sm_1769733150.779714.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/africa-home\/sites\/69\/2026\/01\/sm_1769733150.779714.jpg","width":1556,"height":1167,"caption":"Ghana Grants its Citizenship to American Youtuber \u201cIshowspeed\u201d"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/culture-and-art\/ghana-grants-its-citizenship-to-american-youtuber-ishowspeed#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Ghana Grants its Citizenship to American Youtuber \u201cIshowspeed\u201d"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/","name":"Africa Press English","description":"\u0623\u0648\u0644 \u0645\u0648\u0642\u0639 \u0625\u0641\u0631\u064a\u0642\u064a \u064a\u0643\u062a\u0628 \u0628\u0644\u063a\u0629 \u0628\u0644\u062f\u0627\u0646\u0647","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4155\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4154"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}