How Acie Lumumba fixed himself

In the past few years, Acie Lumumba has been nothing of a branding genius and a social media user extraordinaire. I should say off the bat that I don't like him much, as a person and as a political figure, but I am not naïve and bitter enough to ignore the work he has put in the Lumumba brand.

Lumumba, whose real name is William Mutumanje has a murky past shrouded in fraud, bad politics and horrible social behaviour. According to Pindula  "He has been accused of misappropriation of funds and corruption on a number of occasions," and also that he was a ZANU PF loyalist at some point who clearly benefited from his association to the party.

His fortunes changed though at some point when the then Ministry of Youth Patrick Zhuwawo fired him from some committee and he came out on Facebook guns blazing accusing the Minister of corruption. This was followed by a downward spiral from then on with him leaving the party (cough… hypocrite) to using the F word on Mugabe and forming his own political party that has since disappeared.

With that said, you could say his life was basically over, but nooooo, just a few days a video he made has over 100 thousand views on YouTube… For a lot of people, for me at least I would have thought he was done and dusted. How does he do it though, how does he still get loads of people to pay attention even when almost everyone agrees he is a despicable human being deep down.

Controversy is a currency

Somewhere along the road in human evolution, it seems we turned into idiots and agreed that arsehole type behaviour sells. People look at the controversy and immediately feel drawn to it or the people who perpetuate it. In a way, Acie Lumumba is just a famous a' hole who knows how to use it, sort of like (no exactly like0 the bad boy girl speaks badly about but was to soo badly to date him.

Lumumba's political and personal life is engrossed is scandal and controversy and he has used that to his advantage. He has made a name from being that guy who said F.U to Mugabe and called ministers names on Facebook. Oh, did I mention that there is a sextape involved?

The Sextape Phenomenon

I don't know how we got here as a species. I don't know exactly why this idea rings true a lot of the time, but a lot of famous people have sextapes out there. Kim Kardashian wouldn't be the influencer she is if there wasn't a sextape, Paris Hilton – the same. Even closer to home, the first time a lot of Zimbabweans met Pokello was in that sextape with Stunner. Acie has one too. Apparently, it came out around the time when a lot was happening around him.

Yes grunted you can say it doesn't work all the time and there are a lot of people who have sextapes out and have not benefited from the human races' warped list of priorities but hey look –we are human F**cking being we are hella complicated and this is not an exact science. Lumumba though has a sextape and is a really influential person. Without attributing he's social media success to what he did when he was not dressed and there was a camera involved – I can, however, say he is a lot more influential post sextape… the rest is just your interpretation.

Shock Value

Look this is straight forward and is by a long shot one of the major reason I don't like Lumumba much. You see Lumumba has mastered the art of shock value. According to Darren W. Dahl in an article published in Journal of Advertising Research (2003) shock value advertising that "deliberately, rather than inadvertently, startles and offends its audience by violating norms for social values and personal ideals.

If you notice, Acie will say stuff that is really controversial on purpose, and sometimes it shocks the hell out of me. I am not going to quote any of he's ridiculously startling statements, but F.U Mugabe is an example. I can bet that he planned that and knew that the response to that scenario will give him a lot of relevance, damn – I was a student by that time and I wrote a blog post somewhat praising that (to the shock of my father)

Consistency

Regardless of all these things, there is no substitute for hard work if you are trying to stay relevant and influential. The truth is Acie Lumumba puts in the work and constantly so. He's web shows are always there. He constantly comes up with new, well thought of ideas. And regardless of the rumbling that goes on in show off these shows… Lumumba works hard. I admire that. He has a quality I have failed to muster in all my blogging life (which is sadly not that long).

It is because of this quality that I write this article really, and why I think he deserves completely 9well not completely – humans are messed up) to be where he is.

Let's not get it twisted, I am not a fan of a lot of he's ideas, I am not a fan of him as a person, and I don't see myself ever voting for him if he asked me to, but there is no denying that he is a haard working man who has used social media really well. He has not just used it to stay politically relevant, but to redesign his brand and get his views into everyone's head.

Hats off to you buddy…