Katonda Alinawe aka "Kenya Dance" (found full version of unidentified song; 2011)
A screenshot from Filthy Frank’s now-deleted video “How To Pick Up Girls In 30 Different Cultures!”, which includes a snippet of the song.
Status: Found
Date found: 03 Dec 2023
Found by: damn peggy
Katonda Alinawe by David SonJC (also known by its placeholder name "Kenya Dance") is a song that first gained popularity after being played for three seconds on a Filthy Frank video. When asked about it, the YouTuber claimed that he didn't remember anything about this track: and so began a decade-long search for its title and full version.
Background
On January 14th, 2013, YouTuber Filthy Frank (now known as Joji) posted a now-removed video called “How To Pick Up Girls In 30 Different Cultures!”.[1][2] About 38 seconds in, a three-second snippet of the song is played, while Joji dances as a stereotypical Kenyan man, before the next scene abruptly begins.[2] Fans started to immediately wonder what the song was called and asked Joji about it. He then decided to answer using the video's captions:[3]
Don't know the name, stop asking!
Origins, Language and Lyrics
Unlike what the video suggests, the song itself was confirmed not to be from Kenya, but from Uganda: for that reason, it is widely believed that the song is sung in the Lugandan language. The song is a gospel: it can be deducted by translating the lyrics of the original, short snippet, which are the following:[1]
Ono omwana atuzaalidwa,
omulenzi atuweleddwa
That translates to a verse from the Bible (Isaiah 9:6):
For unto us a child is born
Unto us a son is given
The Search
On December 21st, 2015, the video "NEW African Cristiano Ronaldo - AMAZING Long Shot HD", which shows a kid kicking a ball, was posted by a channel named TM2: it used the exact same snippet of the song found on Joji's video from 2 years prior.[1][4] When asked how exactly he got it, TMS said that he found it on the deep web for 10 dollars, spreading the rumour that Joji had bought the snippet there as well.[4] It's unclear whether TM2 said that as a joke or not.[4]
Discovery
Despite the search's length, for many years no significant progress was made. Up until the full version was found, the three-second snippet of the song from Joji's video was its only known clip.
On December 3, 2023, after around 10 years of searching, the song was found. On that day, YouTuber nbduckman had uploaded a video called "The Search for the Filthy Frank Kenya Song", which explained the history of the search up to that point, mentioned some potential leads, and offered a $300 bounty for finding the song. That same day, Discord user "damn peggy" watched the video and decided to try searching for the song. He searched YouTube for "east ugandan gospel before:2013", and almost immediately found the song. He sent nbduckman a link to a then-obscure YouTube video with just a few hundred views by David SonJC, called “Katonda alinawe, Ugandan gospel Music,2011, Africa”, stating:
33 second mark
I’m literally shaking right now
About 33 seconds in, the snipped used in the Filthy Frank video could be heard: the title and the full song had both been finally found. nbduckman subsequently released another video that day announcing the find, and awarded the $300 bounty to "damn peggy".