Digital Diplomacy Without the State: Chef Abby and Ghana’s Institutional Communication Gap

Cultural promotion's architecture is evolving quickly. For many years, states projected their national identities abroad through ministries, embassies, tourism boards, and traditional media organizations. These days, the way that countries are perceived worldwide is increasingly influenced by algorithms, creators, and digital storytelling. Influencers are becoming more than just lifestyle figures or performers. Many are becoming soft power operatives, cultural interpreters, and unofficial ambassadors. For instance, Chef Abby is one of the few artists in Ghana who best exemplifies this metamorphosis. Ghanaian food has become a worldwide consumable cultural narrative because of Chef Abby's use of TikTok, Instagram, and cross-platform storytelling. Her recent initiatives in the UK, such as cooking Ghanaian food for over 300 workers at Snapchat's London office, show how digital creators are increasingly taking on roles often associated with cultural promotion and tourism diplomacy (Agambila, 2026).

However, her ascent also highlights a more serious structural problem. Instead of being strategically incorporated into this new ecosystem of digital cultural diplomacy, Ghanaian official institutions seem to be mostly reactive. Sustained institutional amplification from significant state communication and tourism apparatus looks scattered and inconsistent, despite its worldwide reach and recurrent international recognition. The question of whether Ghana's digital creative economy has developed more quickly than its institutional communication architecture is crucial. It seems more and more likely that the answer is yes. The emergence of artists such as Chef Abby is consistent with more general academic discussions on cultural culinary communication and digital diplomacy.

According to recent research, social media influencers are evolving into non-state diplomatic actors with the ability to influence cross-cultural perceptions and international engagement (El-Khdar and Es-Soufi, 2023; Jin, 2024; Liu and Shi, 2024; Møller et al., 2024; Casas, 2025; Chang and Chang, 2025). Influencers, according to El-Khdar and Es-Soufi (2026), are increasingly acting as ‘people-driven diplomacy’ players who alter cultural ties outside of official state frameworks. By moving diplomacy away from embassies and formal speeches and toward platforms, visibility, relatability, and algorithmic reach, this article highlights its significance.

This change is evident in Chef Abby's work, which wraps Ghanaian identity into visually captivating narratives that instantly transcend national boundaries rather than just teaching recipes. ChefAbby uses foods like waakye, banku, jollof, and okro stew to convey African identity, hospitality, remembrance, and legacy to viewers who might not have been to Ghana. By fusing Ghanaian food with British culinary culture in ways intended for platform interaction and cross-cultural appeal, Chef Abby's partnerships with foreign creators throughout her UK tour increased this awareness even more. This distinction is important because, according to Chang and Chang (2025), food is increasingly being used as a tool of soft power on a worldwide scale. In her ‘gastrodiplomacy’ study, Herningtyas (2019) asserts that food is becoming a tactical instrument for influencing opinions around the world. For example, Chang and Chang's (2025) study on Taiwanese digital gastrodiplomacy shows how national branding and soft power projection may be greatly aided by social media participation around food. As a result, food becomes symbolic communication rather than just something to be consumed.

Chef Abby's narrative style turns cooking into cultural narration because she has an innate understanding of this. She concurrently promotes tourism, tradition, identity, language, aesthetics, and lifestyle as she offers Ghanaian cuisine online. Her programming appeals to audiences outside of Ghana; because of this, she does more than just cook. She uses visuals to interpret culture. This growing significance is confirmed by her recognition on a global scale. After representing Ghana in TikTok's Cannes Lions showcase in France in 2025, she was named one of TIME's 100 Most Influential Creators worldwide (GNA, 2025). Her standing as a local influencer was boosted to that of a worldwide cultural player by this acknowledgement. Crucially, platform ecosystems rather than coordinated governmental initiatives produced most of this prominence.

This is the point at which the institutional weakness is apparent. Although her accomplishments were greatly enhanced by entertainment bloggers, social media users, and digital audiences, there doesn't seem to be any evidence of a consistent national communication plan based on her expanding global prominence. This does not imply that she was completely disregarded by state entities. The problem is distinct since it involves strategic integration. The Ghana Tourism Authority and the Ministry of Tourism, Culture, and Creative Arts are two of the organisations of Ghana that are supposedly in charge of promoting travel, cultural diplomacy, and national branding. However, it seems that entertainment media ecosystems and creator networks, rather than organised national branding machinery, are more responsible for the prominence surrounding Chef Abby's international endeavours.

This discrepancy highlights a more widespread communication issue in many African nations. While digital creators use algorithmic communication logic, institutions still mostly use ceremonial publicity rationale. There are significant differences between the two systems.

Communication inside an institution is frequently:

1. Press-release-driven,
2. Official,
3. Centralised,
4. Bureaucratic, and
5. Slow.

Communication between creators is:

1. Visually appealing,
2. Quick,
3. Interactive,
4. Audience-focused, and
5. Algorithmically optimized.

As a result, in terms of global visibility and engagement, artists are increasingly outperforming institutions. According to recent studies, such as Møller et al. (2024), digital diplomacy increasingly mainly relies on ‘social aesthetics’, where platform culture and visual representation more successfully influence foreign perception than official diplomatic communication. In a similar vein, Ku (2025) broadens the argument by emphasizing that states now compete in digitally mediated contexts where social media activity continuously shapes perception.

Ghana's institutions do not seem to be well-suited to this reality. Comparing this deficiency to other countries' strategic integration of creators into cultural branding systems makes it more apparent. As extensions of national branding, worldwide communication, and tourism diplomacy, countries are investing more in influencer alliances. For example, to promote national history and revitalize international destination branding, the Italian Tourism Ministry's ‘Open to Meraviglia’ campaign skillfully combined historical art with a contemporary influencer character. Additionally, the Indonesian government formally allotted targeted resources (such as an IDR 77.6 billion plan) for digital innovators with the express purpose of promoting domestic fashion and international travel. Ghana, on the other hand, still seems to approach artists mostly after they have independently gained international recognition.

Many possibilities are lost because of that reactive approach:

1. It undermines coordinated national branding. Ghanaian artists are spreading their country's identity around the world, although their work is rarely included in a long-term governmental communication plan.
2. It also restricts economic possibilities. Digital visibility is becoming increasingly important in the tourism, food, fashion, film, and cultural export industries. The state underutilises a significant economic resource when artists market Ghana on their own without formal institutional assistance.
3. It puts sustainability issues at risk. Despite producing significant soft power value for the nation, many artists operate without funds, institutional collaborations, policy frameworks, or long-term support mechanisms.

Thus, a paradox is shown by Chef Abby's success. Ghana has digitally powerful artists and globally marketable cultural assets, but institutional systems are still not keeping up with this change. There is more than one creator involved in this problem. Increasingly, artists serve as unofficial ambassadors throughout Africa. International perceptions of African nations are today shaped more quickly by travel vloggers, cuisine producers, fashion influencers, filmmakers, and artists than by official tourism campaigns or state broadcasters. Social media sites like YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok are increasingly acting as unofficial ministries of tourism and culture.

There are significant ramifications.

• The state no longer controls all aspects of national image-making.
• Visibility is now mediated by algorithms.
• In terms of influencing global perception, creators today face competition from institutions.
• Decentralised cultural diplomacy is emerging.

Adopting new policies is necessary for this change. Ghanaian institutions need to include creators strategically rather than just symbolically. In other words:

• Establishing collaborations between creators and tourism.
• Financing programs for cultural export.
• Incorporating influencers into national marketing initiatives.
• Supporting the infrastructure for digital storytelling.
• Developing quantifiable techniques for digital soft power.
• Constructing frameworks for long-term creator diplomacy.

Institutions would continue to lag the very innovators who are already globalizing Ghanaian identity in the absence of such adaptation. Therefore, Chef Abby's ascent should not be seen as just a personal achievement. It is proof of a structural change in the power of communication. The contemporary cultural ambassador is increasingly coming via platforms, algorithms, and creator ecosystems that may turn commonplace culture into a worldwide force rather than from embassies, ministries, or state television. Chef Abby is promoting more than just food in many respects. The future of diplomacy itself is being revealed by her.

References
Casas, C. Y. S. (2025). Digital Ambassadors of Peru: Cultural Diplomacy in the Age of Content Creators. Política Internacional, (137), 253-268.

Chang, A. Y., & Chang, H. C. H. (2025). Food as Soft Power: Taiwanese Gastrodiplomacy on Social Media and Algorithmic Suppression. arXiv preprint arXiv:2511.05729.

Dorcus Agambila (2026). Chef Abbys takes over Snapchat UK’s kitchen to feed 300+ staff with Ghanaian food. Available at: https://www.pulse.com.gh/story/chef-abbys-takes-over-snapchat-uks-kitchen-to-feed-300-staff-with-ghanaian-food-2026052209513276260? [Assessed:23/05/2026]

El-Khdar, A., & Es-Soufi, K. (2026). Digital Cultural Diplomacy in Practice: A Netnographic Study of Moroccan Social Media Influencers (SMIs) at AFCON 2023. European Journal of Communication and Media Studies, 5(1), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.24018/ejmedia.2026.5.1.70175

GNA (2025). Ghana’s Chef Abby listed on TIME’s 100 Most Influential Creators in the world. Available at: https://www.businessghana.com/site/news/entertainment/330933/Chef-Abby-gets-TIME100-recognition [Assessed:23/05/2026]

Herningtyas, R. (2019, October). Korean Gastro diplomacy: Strategy to enhance country promotion toward moslem countries. In Third International Conference on Sustainable Innovation 2019–Humanity, Education and Social Sciences (IcoSIHESS 2019) (pp. 247-252). Atlantis Press.

Jin, D. Y. (2024). The rise of digital platforms as a soft power apparatus in the New Korean Wave era. Communication and the Public, 9(2), 161-177.

Ku, M. (2025). The digital reproduction of the state: Public diplomacy, digital entitativity, and strategic ontology. Media, War & Conflict, 18(4), 570-595.

Liu, C., & Shi, W. (2024). Reclaiming authenticity through image construction: wanghong as actors of China’s digital public diplomacy: C. Liu, W. Shi. Place Branding and Public Diplomacy, 1-13.

Møller, A. H. K., Adler-Nissen, R., Golovchenko, Y., & Eggeling, K. A. (2024). The social aesthetics of digital diplomacy. International Political Sociology, 18(3), olae027.