“I Never Meant for It to Be A Concept of Its Own”: A Minute with Siv, the Minister of Gwababa
His followers know and love him as the Minister of the Gwababa Movement, the advocate of how one teaspoon a day is all anybody requires to be saved from a humbling experience. Others hate him for the authority his title holds, blaming their dry DMs and relationship droughts on his videos on his videos discouraging people from approaching their crushes. He goes by the name Siv.
Originally from East London in the Eastern Cape, Siv is a Johannesburg-based digital content creator. Having already made a name for himself over the past year on TikTok and Instagram, he boasts a following of 353,000 and 180,000 followers on the platforms, respectively. Before the fame and clout, he grew up in a matriarchal household, being the last-born child who spent the bulk of his time with his cousins with whom he maintained a close-knit connection that he characterised as being brotherhood.
Somewhere between journeying from Eastern Cape to Jozi, then KwaZulu-Natal, and then the City of Gold again, the love for content creation seized. Ignited by those he modelled his craft after, such as renowned digital giants KSI and Deji, among others, he ran with the fuel till he hit his own stride in the content-making world.
“What inspired me to get into content creation was basically watching other creators like KSI, Deji, and CoryxKenshin while I was still growing up. I also wanted to create content of my own because of them – that is what really got me interested,” he said.
Among many other gwababa-inspired TikToks on his account, two pinned videos are sitting pretty on over a million views, one of which is currently on 2.2 million. Riding on the wave of the phenomenon’s success, Siv’s already pushing Gwababa merch, proudly sponsored by the popularity of the content as well as his own personal humbling experiences he shied away from sharing. Yet, what most don’t know is that he never foresaw that one video would lead to the proliferation of many more like it.
“What started the trend is a term that’s about a year old now. The 29th of October falls on a Sunday. Last year on the same day I saw a particular video of a dude trying to talk to a girl who was already talking to another guy. But she didn’t acknowledge the guy’s existence and pushed him away. And he was like, ‘Hah! Ungenza so?’ And I was like, mmh. This is why I avoid situations like this, because I’ve got gwababa. And that’s how it began. It was actually supposed to be a one-off, random rant. I never meant for it to be a concept of its own,” he said.
Although he has enjoyed his time in the limelight as a facile content creator, Siv admitted that besides being an online funnyman, he also has a magnificent hand when it comes to drawing.
“I’m actually good at drawing, even though I haven’t exactly drawn in quite a while. That’s one of my other talents that I discovered about myself at a young age. You know, being able to draw well, especially when I used to draw Dragon Ball Z and other anime characters throughout my childhood,” he said.
With his sights set on stacking riches with his brand, Siv only had one word of advice for his followers, a piece of wisdom he stressed mattered as much as bread and wine did to the Eucharist.
“The one and only message I have is to not forget to take a teaspoon of gwababa a day just to keep a humbling experience away. That’s the only message, all day every day.” he said.
Connect with Siv:
TikTok: @siv.za
Instagram: @siv.za