What happens when popular streamer IShowSpeed goes head-to-head with Africa’s strongest woman? Well, the competition was less about battling and more about shedding a new light on the African continent, something Speed has tried to do across his whirlwind “Speed Does Africa” tour. The 20-year-old American streamer, known for his antics and fast pace (it’s in the name after all), turned heads when he trained with Chido Maenzanise, a native Zimbabwean who was crowned “Africa’s Strongest Woman” and holds 10 gold medals from strongwoman competitions.

The “Speed Does Africa” tour blends the streamer’s amped-up antics with regional sights and culture. Speed, born Darren Watkins, Jr, used this same formula on his tours of Australia and New Zealand in 2024 and South America in 2025. His energetic style creates a distinct form of travel content that blurs the line between spectacle and participation, turning local customs and attractions into moments of shared celebration rather than detached observation. In Zimbabwe, that approach shifted the focus away from Speed himself and toward the people and traditions shaping the moment.

In Context

This part of the tour continues Speed’s competitive streak, just after he raced a cheetah in South Africa. The YouTube phenomenon also raced American sprinter Noah Lyles, the reigning Olympic 100-meter gold medalist, in 2024 for a charity event coordinated by MrBeast. The feats of strength took place in Harare, Zimbabwe’s capital. Speed and Maenzanise lifted tires and pulled cars at an underpass at Trabablas Interchange, Zimbabwe’s largest roadway, which was recently redeveloped under a controversial infrastructure project by President Emmerson Mnangagwa (according to the Africa Report). Over 40 million people watched the stream live. Zimbabwe was the third stop on the “Speed Does Africa” tour, continuing the streamer’s journey in the southern part of the continent, after visiting Angola, South Africa, Mozambique, Eswatini and Botswana, before moving onto Zambia. 

Speed’s decision to spotlight an internationally recognized strongwoman for a global audience reflects his broader approach to blending entertainment with visibility, particularly as women’s strength sports continue to gain wider recognition. The visually striking image of a professional strongwoman pulling a car alongside him transformed the challenge into a collaborative spectacle, one that translated naturally to a livestream format without reducing the athlete to a prop.

Large crowds were drawn to witness the spectacle, which culminated with IShowSpeed and Maenzanise racing while pulling cars and Zimbabwe’s strongest man Arnold Zikhali pulling a truck with Speed sitting on top of it. Zimbabwe carries a long history shaped by colonial extraction, political instability, and decades of economic hardship, factors that have often defined how the country is portrayed to outside audiences. Those narratives tend to flatten a place better understood through its people, communities, and everyday expressions of pride and skill. Moments like Speed’s training session and competition with Maenzanise and Zikhali offer a different entry point, one rooted in local talent rather than inherited assumptions.

Zooming Out

Africa is the world’s youngest continent and is poised to become its fastest-growing region both economically and by population, a shift that could see it overtake Asia as early as 2026, according to the Financial Times’ David Pilling. That growth, paired with a predominantly mobile-first media landscape, has made the continent increasingly important to the global content economy. While many Africans push back against being grouped into a single narrative, given the region’s vast diversity in culture, history, and scale, creators have continued to engage audiences across the continent in more localized ways. IShowSpeed carried that approach forward with the next stop on his “Speed Does Africa” tour, broadcasting an “IRL stream” from Zambia.

James Lewis

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