The Remarkable Rise of Yagga

The Remarkable Rise of Yagga

Six years ago, South Sudan’s Aboor Abraham Ayaau Riak got out of the cage of boredom and started posting on social media. Now, he’s a superstar just for posting a video of a girl and helping to shape a new vision for Africa.

First known as Me Idiot and then Mr Nyash, he has been making big waves on social media, and he’d like to keep it that way. The 27-year-old content creator spent his early days making videos when TikTok was still about music, then later he switched to relatable content that helped make him famous in certain South Sudan circles long before he reached the whole of Africa and worldwide.

Inside the headquarters of Africa’s TikTok, the most successful currently operating in Nigeria is GehGeh, Funnybros, and Crispal. Three green dice bounce against the wooden floor.

Yagga, born Aboor Abraham Ayaau Riak, is a patient and methodical hustler, answering the call of fame. Every time he throws a video to his fans, he pulls in millions of views to his cause. When he first began posting in 2020, he didn’t just blow up. But it didn’t take long; the next year, within a couple of months, after a trending video of him, all the fame and glow returned to Yagga’s name. Satisfied, he packs the videos up while gaining big grim views with it.

As his videos hit millions of views, 1XBet, a betting group, has collaborated with him, so as have Club Uganda, Coca-Cola, and Magical Uganda. Yagga is detailing his fame very sensibly, hoping to see one of his winning streaks up close, the type that would leave everyone or company chasing him across the city to win cash back.

Yagga is, by many metrics, one of the most popular TikTokers in the world right now. He has appeared in many advertisements for Coca-Cola and 1xbet this year, and even in content creation projects with TikTokers like MickeySemFunny, Ivo Official, M. Alby, and many others.

Before he was a TikToker, Yagga was a constant presence in the orbit of Africa. When Peller, Jadrolita, JoBlaq, and Khaby Lame were cutting their teeth, he was right there, hustling just as hard.

TikTok is a medium built on embellishment. It inspires young people and even adults with a hustle mentality, whether for fun or for making money. Some even go on selling themselves just to gain some fame, and sometimes some don’t even blow up. But Yagga’s life story was already interesting. He didn’t need hyperbole. By any standards, Yagga’s rise was unnervingly fast.

After the boost in 2021, Yagga recruited short-form skit making, and somehow it favored him too. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, like millions of others in the world, he took to social media to find something to do. That time, Yagga began posting too. But unlike the majority of millions of people, most of whom didn’t blow up until today, Yagga blew up in no time.