From a Canadian Embassy partnership in Lagos to stages in New York, Atlanta, Winnipeg, and Toronto, the Afrobeats pioneer is building a diplomatic cultural movement that governments are taking seriously.
There is a version of this story that is easy to tell. An artist loves his music. An artist travels the world. People cheer. But that is not the story of Chronicles of Afrobeats, and it is certainly not the story of Bankulli. What he has built over the past several years is something far more deliberate, far more structurally ambitious, and far more consequential for the global standing of African music than a tour.
It started in Lagos, but it did not start with a stage. It started with a meeting room, a partnership, and a decision to attach institutional weight to a cultural movement that the world was only beginning to understand. Bankulli entered into a strategic partnership with the Canadian Embassy in Nigeria, and that single move changed the entire trajectory of what Chronicles of Afrobeats could become.
“The essence of that partnership is a strategic partnership. It gave us a sort of diplomatic backing. We were able to achieve that.”
Diplomatic backing is not a small thing. It means the project is not simply an artist touring for ticket sales. It is a cultural initiative with governmental credibility attached to its name. That distinction opens rooms that music alone cannot open. And Bankulli walked through every one of those rooms.
From Lagos, the Chronicles of Afrobeats moved to New York, where Prime Music Partners came on board as the convening partner for the city leg, bringing with them a network of industry relationships and a clear understanding of what it takes to position African music seriously in one of the world’s most competitive music markets. Their involvement gave the New York chapter of the tour a professional infrastructure that matched the diplomatic weight the project had already built.
Then came Atlanta, where the city’s most honoured community leaders presented Bankulli with formal recognition for his contributions to culture and the arts. The Atlanta leg was anchored in partnership with Kelvin Boj, an artist and creative whose transatlantic identity made him a natural collaborator for a project that lives at the intersection of African heritage and global ambition. It was a moment that confirmed what many in the African music space had already begun to sense: this project was bigger than its founder.
But Winnipeg was where everything changed in scale. The city of Winnipeg came on board not merely as a venue host but as a full partner. Helping to shape the cultural presentation across both Winnipeg and Toronto was Art of Our Roots, an organisation whose mission is rooted in the preservation and celebration of diasporic identity through art and community. Their involvement was not decorative. It was structural. They brought the kind of on-the-ground cultural legitimacy that made the Canadian leg feel less like a foreign tour and more like a homecoming for a community that had been waiting for this moment.
The deputy mayor attended. The deputy premier attended. The Manitoba Museum opened its doors. This was not simply a Nigerian artist receiving a warm reception abroad. It was a cultural institution being welcomed with the kind of protocol often associated with diplomatic delegations.
“We actually partnered with the city of Winnipeg. The deputy mayor was in attendance, the deputy premier was in attendance, the Manitoba Museum was involved. There was a lot of positivity.”
Toronto followed, with an event held at Del X, one of the city’s most prestigious hospitality venues. Five cities across three countries, each one adding a new layer of credibility and reach to the project. And Bankulli is not slowing down.
The UK leg is confirmed for July and August. Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Dubai, and Saudi Arabia are all lined up in sequence. Beyond that, Bankulli has something even larger in mind—a platform he is deliberately keeping under wraps until the time is right.
“We’re going to do the UK between July and August. Then we’re going back to Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Dubai, and Saudi Arabia. Then we’ll push it to the bigger platform. We don’t want to name it yet.”
What Bankulli is building is not a tour. It is a diplomatic and cultural infrastructure for Afrobeats—a network of relationships, institutional partnerships, and cultural influence designed to outlast any single event. It is an ambitious attempt to give African music the kind of global architecture it has rarely enjoyed before.
The cities are changing. The institutions are paying attention. And Bankulli’s Chronicles of Afrobeats is only just beginning.
