Season 01, Episode 05: Get in Loser, We’re Going Viral
The BLK IRL Podcast is an audio docuseries that explores the business of “influencing” and the power dynamics at play in the act of cultural exchange. Join host Anuli Akanegbu as she dissects themes related to race in the influencer economy through research-supported commentary and intimate interviews with predominantly Black content creators, scholars, entrepreneurs, activists, marketing experts, and cultural critics.
In this episode, Anuli talks to Sofiyat Ibrahim (also known online as @TheOdditty), a Washington, DC area based international affairs industry professional and social media influencer about her experience of going viral five times in a span of three months and the misconceptions people have about virality and influencing.
FEATURED SPEAKER: Sofiyat ibrahim
Sofiyat Ibrahim is a Washington, DC area based communications professional in the international affairs industry as well as a social media influencer with over four-hundred and fifty-thousand followers across multiple platforms including YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter. Online, Sofiyat, who typically goes by her nickname “Sofi,” is known as the Odditty, spelled with two T’s. If you follow Sofi online or were one of the thousands of people that have seen any of her viral videos, then you know of her vibrant personality. She is the literal embodiment of “positive vibes only” and she has a Master’s degree in Peace Building to prove it.
Referenced materials
Adegoke, Yinka. “Nigeria’s EndSARS protests have been about much more than police brutality.” Quartz Africa. October 31, 2020. https://qz.com/africa/1925513/nigerias-endsars-protests-about-much-more-than-police-brutality/
Fluehr-Lobban, Caroline. “Introduction” in The Equality of Human Races, translated by Asselin Charles. Champaign: University of Illinois Press, 2002.
Ibrahim, Sofiyat. The Odditty. https://www.theodditty.com/
Jourdan, Christine. “Pidgins and Creoles Genesis: an Anthropological Offering.” In Language, Culture, and Society: Key Topics in Linguistic Anthropology, edited by Christine Jourdan and Kevin Tuite, 135–55. Studies in the Social and Cultural Foundations of Language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006.
Kuti, Fela. “Fela Kuti - Zombie.” YouTube. November 9, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qj5x6pbJMyU
Ngũgĩ wa Thiongʼo. Decolonising the mind: the politics of language in African literature. London: J. Currey. 1986.
Smalls, Krystal. “Languages of Liberation: Digital Discourses of Emphatic Blackness.” In N Avineri, LR Graham, EJ Johnson, RC Riner & J Rosa (eds), Language and Social Justice in Practice. Routledge, New York, pp. 52-60, 2018.
TheOdditty. “Life Update.” YouTube. October 25, 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5MFaHwu7pk&t=459s