How Artist Ajiswag Survived The Lockdown With Social Media.
Written by Editor on June 19, 2021
At the birth of the corona virus in Uganda in March 2020 which called for a subsequent lockdown to curtail further spread of the disease, artists danced to its tune by facing suspension of all public events which took in it, concerts and other exercises in the Arts industry.
This equally tapped in the artists’ eyes and gave them an insight on what to do next. One of these was effective use of online services, social media to be specific. Professional dancer, Ajiswag is one who emulated this and now smiles ear to ear at the results of this initiative.
At first, Ajiswag used different social media platforms but never tried TikTok even when she had the app installed. But when she took up its usage, her experience took a smiling turn as she explains.
“I activated my TikTok account by the end of March 2020 but all along I had the app in my phone but never found it essential to activate it. I saw it as a waste of time. When I joined, I started doing my thing, got a following and artists started asking me to do challenges for them, which I did. I even got a gig with MTN,” says Ajiswag.
For the fact that the country was under a lockdown, this translated to redundancy which got most people on their phones. Taking up TikTok was so timely for Ajiswag that its benefits helped her to survive in the pandemic. This came after people liked her content and everything she used to do.
How she built the following
“It was in two contexts. First, it was after a Kenyan actress and dancer, Azziad Nassenya Wafula popularly known as ‘Kenya’s TikTok Queen’ did the ‘Gutawezana’ challenge and the other one was Daddy Andre’s challenge on ‘Tonerabira’.
On TikTok, I chose to do what I knew best, which is my cup of tea ― dance and also lip syncing. But there are people who decide to abuse or jump at anyone because they find it deserving.
When Azziad came up and did that challenge, it trended so much here in Uganda. People started praising it on social media saying that no one can challenge it.
Because some people knew me as a good dancer and believed in me, they said I was the only one able to challenge Azziad. But remember joining TikTok, I wanted to have fun.
I didn’t want to do the challenge in the first place to show that it was for a battle because even Azziad did her thing for fun. She was not proving to anyone that she could wiggle or wind her waist.
When I was tagged overwhelmingly, I consulted my manager on whether to do it or not. She approved it since it was my followers and fans who had requested me to. I did it and posted it everywhere on social media and people said it was done so nicely. That’s how I got a following in the first place.
The next one was Daddy Andre’s challenge on ‘Tonerabira’. I have that tomboy act that I usually do imitating men. I did the challenge which trended everywhere and people fell in love with the character I did.
After gaining the following I kept uploading my dancing and lip syncing videos which got many people obsessed with my acts, thereby earning some money from the artists who approached me,” narrates Ajiswag.
