Ika Uria Wikaga, a song by the late celebrated Mugithi singer Salim Junior has been making waves on social media.
It is one of the trendiest sounds on TikTok at the moment, with content creators, choreographers and every day Kenyans jumping on the bandwagon.
An October 24 spot check under the sound on the social media app shows that hundreds have taken up the latest challenge, which heartwarmingly pays homage to one of Kenya’s ethnic languages, Kikuyu.
There is already a dance for it- and the blend of modern dance moves with that old- school Mugithi sound is refreshing to see.
The challenge was made massively popular by the participation of renowned social media personalities, with the first being Cecike Icon Killer, a Kenyan content creator and choreographer with 42,000 followers on Tik-Tok and an impressive like count of over 1 million.
A clip of the dancer and his friends taking on the challenge with smooth moves has been viewed over 800,000 times at the time of this article’s writing- and the figure is steadily rising.
“Point of view, you thought your mother tongue was slowly dying but your generation is bringing it back,” social media personality Lishan Shish ‘Kairetu’ wrote as she took on the challenge, sharing her cute take of the dance with TikTok followers, and amassing over 350,000 views in the process.
Popular choreographer and content creator Diaso, who was instrumental in popularizing Urbantone artiste Dyana Cod’s track Set It on the app, has also jumped on the Ika Uria Wikaga sound.
He took up the challenge alongside friends including choreographers Rahmu and Cecike Icon Killer, creating a masterpiece of a dance-clip that has amassed an incredible 1.3 million views to date.
The earliest available version of Salim Junior’s video for the song was uploaded on YouTube in 2021, and Kenyans have already rushed back to the video-sharing platform to watch the singer in action.
“From TikTok…and I’ve been playing this repeatedly despite me being a Luo…what matters is I love the beats!!” writes one Amanda.
“2024, who’s here?” poses one Njenga, as more fans heap praises on the track.
The celebrated Mugithi maestro Salim Junior passed away in 2016, with Tuko reporting that his burial was crowned by hundreds of mourners including key political figures.
“He was among the pioneer group of one-man guitar acts that included equally popular artists like the late Murimi wa Ka-half, Mike Murimi, Mike Rua, and his (Salim’s) younger brother Mighty Salim,” per The Standard.
