The Warthog is emerging as the most popular wildlife species in Tanzania as well as Kenya, Uganda and the rest of the Eastern African Region, thanks to social media boost.
The ‘Warthog,’ famous trending on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp groups and communities as well as Tik-Tok is usually accompanied by the soundtrack from an old Super Mazembe hit of 1978, ‘Kasongo!’
It all started like some kind of online video meme, in the mid 2024 but as time went by, the clips of speeding warthogs from different scenarios became viral, while the old dusted Rhumba hit, ‘Kasongo,’ is returning to charts with aplomb.
Now, both ‘Kasongo’ and the ‘Warthog,’ have become household names in 2025.
Before social media pundits hailed the Warthog to high esteem, the Elephant was the most popular animal in East African National Parks and Game Reserves, at least, according to the African Wildlife Foundation polls of 2022.
But of late, the Warthog is being the most famous online, labeled as the fastest animal in the wild, beating even the cheetah (Which is of course not true) and also the most cunning (outwitting the marauding leopard) and brave (fearlessly entering the den of lions and getting out unscathed).
Except most of the clips depicting the warthog as the jungle superman have been cleverly produced mostly through Artificial Intelligent (AI) applications, Photoshop and other image or video manipulating platforms.
And the trend is working miracles, creating some form of jungle ‘story book,’ albeit a funny one, with the Warthog emerging as a hero in the same spirit as the animated ‘Penguins of Madagascar!’ or ‘Tom and Jerry,’ cartoon episodes.
But whatever the situation, the ‘Heroic,’ Warthog escapades are always accompanied by the ‘Kasongo,’ music soundtrack, whether the actual song playing in the background or a distorted version of it for maximum hilarious effects.
At the moment, the Warthog has already earned itself the name ‘Kasongo!’
But the Meme seems to be even affecting people in the local political circles as well.
Infamous politicians, especially East African heads of state, precisely badly performing ones, have also been labelled as ‘Kasongo.’
On the other hand, the infamous old Super Mazembe hit is slowly but surely making a return to the charts, at least in music halls, public ceremonies and receiving major air plays in local radio stations.
It is a simple, sing-along number done in Lingala, about a lonely lady craving for the return of her runaway husband whose name is of course ‘Kasongo!’
The Kasongo revival has been similar to the previous YouTube click-bait, ‘Rick-Rolling,’ mania which went viral in the United States and United Kingdom about decade ago.
Cheeky Rick-Rollers used to lure people into clicking on an attractive topic on YouTube only to get themselves treated to the 1987 hit, ‘Never Gonna Give You Up,’ by the British Pop Star, Rick Astley.
Now the entire East African region seems to ‘Rick-Roll’ with an even older song, ‘Kasongo,’ by the now defunct ‘Super Mazembe,’ a music band that was based in Nairobi, Kenya but made up of mostly musicians from the DR Congo.