Berthold Kobby Winkler Ackon (born March 3, 1990), popularly known as Wode Maya, is a

Ghana Ghana, officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It is situated along the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, and shares borders with Côte d’Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, and Togo to t ...

ian

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

personality, vlogger, digital media influencer, and

aeronautical engineer Aerospace engineering is the primary field of engineering concerned with the development of aircraft and spacecraft. It has two major and overlapping branches: aeronautical engineering and astronautical engineering. Avionics engineering is s ...

. His name Wode Maya (Wǒ de Mà yà) translates to ''Oh My God'' in the Chinese language. In 2017, he took a video in a bus where seats were empty beside him and other passengers stood due to his skin colour and the video went viral. He is acclaimed to be one of the top and most Influential YouTubers in Africa.

Early life and education

Wode Maya is from Ahekofi, Kofikrom, a town in the Western region of Ghana. He attended the

Beijing Language and Culture University Beijing Language and Culture University (BLCU; ) is a Types of universities and colleges in China, public university of linguistics in Haidian, Beijing, Haidian, Beijing, China. It is affiliated with the Ministry of Education (China), Ministry of ...

(BLCU).

Career

He was still a student when he started vlogging in China about his experiences and later quit his job as an aeronautical engineer. His moniker Wode Maya comes from the Mandarin expression wǒ de mā ya (我的妈呀, lit. "Oh, my mom!"), which is an interjection that roughly equates to English "Oh my god!" In December 2021, he started his own real estate company and said it will be known as 'CHARLIEMAG Estate' located in

East Legon East Legon is a town in the Ayawaso West Municipal District of the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. East Legon has a total area of 4.95 km2 (1.91 mi2) and a total distance of 9.36 km (5.82 mi). It is an 11-minute drive from the ...

. He was one of six prominent YouTubers from around the world invited to cover the annual conference of the

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental organization, international advocacy non-governmental organization and think tank, based in Cologny, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German ...

in 2023. He was also invited to cover the 2023

Munich Security Conference The Munich Security Conference (MSC), formerly Munich Conference on Security Policy, is an annual conference on international security policy that has been held in Munich, Germany, since 1963. Over the past four decades the Munich Security Con ...

Personal life

Wode Maya is married to Miss Trudy, a Kenyan YouTuber.

Philanthropy

Wode Maya donated roughly $10,000 for a dumpsite to be transformed into a park after being inspired by a man in

Kwahu Kwahu or Kwawu is an area and group of people that live in Ghana and are part of the Twi-speaking Akan people, Akan group. The region has been dubbed Asaase Aban, or the Natural Fortress, given its position as the highest habitable elevation in th ...

. In 2021, he helped raise $10,000 to cater to the educational needs of one-hundred children. He claimed it was more than a donation and called on others to take up such deeds.

Accolades

Wode Maya won Online Creator of the Year at the 2022 Entertainment Achievement Awards.

References

{{Reflist Living people 1990 births Aeronautical engineers 21st-century Ghanaian engineers Ghanaian YouTubers YouTube vloggers