“cr azy white men” 249on his latest releases may be read as an attempt to make his music more
accessible to his European fans.
EES has been particularly industrious at accessing new audiences. Af-
ter coming to Germany in 2004, his initial hopes of starting a quick career
in the music business were shattered. At first, he attempted to popularize
Kwaito music in Germany but could not get airplay for his songs. This is
because the music industry still has a strong grip on music business in
Germany and radio stations rarely feature independent artists on their
programs. Also, unlike Mzungu Kichaa’s music, EES’s is less likely to be
sold in the world music segment. Kwaito is electronic music—somewhat
close to European house music—and perhaps EES’s particular variety of
it does not sound different or “African” enough for German audiences—
despite its lyrics in accented English and interjections in African lan-
guages and Afrikaans. Next to continuing with the production of Kwaito
tracks, he began producing songs in German, featuring upcoming stars
of the German YouTube v-logger scene, such as LionT and T-ZON, the
latter being a German-Namibian musician who is also living in Germany.
To further promote his music and business ventures, EES also opened a
YouTube channel called ees-tv and took part in several shows on Ger-
man television.^19
ees-tv is meant to mediate “Africa” for German YouTube users by in-
troducing them to a particular form of Namibian lifestyle. It is produced in
German, or rather “Nam-släng,” the updated variant of Südwesterdeutsch
EES seeks to establish as his linguistic signature. The channel consists of
short documentary clips about the seemingly exotic and adventurous life
of a German-Namibian Kwaito star. Shot during EES’s trips to Namibia
each year, and uploaded every week, these clips combine the conventions
of a n e xot ic ized tou r ist ic ga ze at A f r ica w it h t he aest het ics of raw, beh i nd-
the-scenes video footage. In the channel trailer, Introdakschen am Pool,^20
EES introduces himself and his mission, talking into the camera while
standing in a swimming pool. Most remarkable about this seven-minute
clip is the way he explains his African roots and how he belongs to the
community of the so-called “forgotten Germans” of Namibia. His reitera-
tion of this group’s history, though visually enhanced by a number of old
still photographs, barely mentions the colonial period of 1895–1918. This