Kenyan musician Labdi and Ghanaian artist Tommy WÁ are set to perform in Nairobi on 2 October as part of the Goethe-Institut Kenya’s MobiArts Tour. The concert will bring together two artists from different musical and cultural backgrounds for an evening centred on artistic exchange and cross-border collaboration. Their performance forms part of a wider regional initiative designed to help African artists connect with audiences and creative communities beyond their home countries. MobiArts brings together artists working in music, storytelling, stand-up comedy, dance, slam poetry and theatre, creating opportunities for different artistic disciplines to meet. The Nairobi event therefore represents more than a single concert, as it forms part of a broader effort to strengthen cultural connections and artistic mobility within Africa.
The MobiArts Tour focuses on the movement of artists across African countries and the creation of new opportunities for collaboration. The project recognises that many African artists have traditionally had limited opportunities to build audiences outside their own countries, despite the cultural and creative connections that exist across the continent. By taking artists to different markets, the initiative gives performers opportunities to introduce their work to new audiences and develop relationships with fellow creatives. It also encourages conversations about how artists can build sustainable careers through greater movement within Africa. The current tour includes artists from Kenya, Ghana, Rwanda and Côte d’Ivoire and will travel across four African countries.
The Nairobi concert will highlight the distinct artistic approaches of Labdi and Tommy WÁ. Although both artists work with music, their creative practices draw from different cultural histories and contemporary influences. Labdi’s work is closely connected to Luo musical traditions and cultural research, while Tommy WÁ combines poetry, visual storytelling and songwriting with a broad range of contemporary musical influences. Their appearance on the same programme creates an opportunity for audiences to experience different approaches to African music and storytelling. It also reflects the MobiArts emphasis on bringing artists from different backgrounds together through performance.
Labdi has developed a distinctive musical practice through her use of the orutu, an indigenous Luo string instrument. The instrument has historically been associated with men, making her use of it an important part of her exploration of Luo musical traditions. Her artistic practice involves researching traditional Luo music and cultural archives and finding ways to reinterpret that material through contemporary performance. Rather than simply reproducing traditional sounds, she works with cultural material as part of an evolving creative process. Her Nairobi performance will give audiences an opportunity to encounter an approach to Kenyan music that connects traditional instruments and cultural knowledge with contemporary artistic expression.
The orutu is particularly significant within the context of Labdi’s work because traditional instruments can carry cultural histories that extend beyond their musical function. Instruments can preserve knowledge about communities, ceremonies, storytelling traditions and changing social practices. By incorporating the orutu into her music, Labdi brings an element of Luo heritage into a contemporary performance setting. Her work also contributes to broader conversations about how African artists can preserve cultural traditions while developing new forms of expression. This balance between heritage and innovation is an important feature of contemporary African music.
Tommy WÁ brings a different creative perspective to the MobiArts Tour. The Ghanaian artist works as a poet, visual storyteller and singer-songwriter, allowing him to combine music with other forms of narrative expression. His sound draws from Afro-inspired music, contemporary folk, indie and retro-soul, creating a musical identity shaped by several genres. His work is also influenced by both his Nigerian heritage and the Ghanaian musical environment in which he is based. These different influences give his performances a cross-cultural character that fits naturally within a project focused on artistic mobility across Africa.
Tommy WÁ’s background also illustrates how African artistic identities can extend beyond national borders. His Nigerian heritage and life in Ghana place different cultural influences within his creative work. Instead of treating national identity as a single fixed category, his music reflects the movement of people, ideas and cultural influences across West Africa. His combination of poetry, visual storytelling and songwriting further demonstrates how contemporary African artists can work across several creative forms. His appearance in Nairobi will introduce Kenyan audiences to an artist whose work is shaped by these overlapping cultural and artistic influences.
The meeting between Labdi and Tommy WÁ also reflects the importance of cultural exchange in Africa’s creative industries. Artists can learn from one another by sharing techniques, musical traditions, performance styles and approaches to storytelling. These exchanges can also introduce audiences to artistic practices they may not encounter through their local music scenes. For performers, travelling to another African country can provide opportunities to establish new professional relationships and understand different audience expectations. Projects such as MobiArts create a structured environment in which these connections can develop through live performance.
The focus on artistic mobility is particularly relevant to African creative industries because the continent contains a large number of distinct music traditions and cultural markets. Artists may have strong audiences in their home countries but face practical barriers when trying to reach listeners elsewhere in Africa. These barriers can include limited touring opportunities, travel costs, differences between creative markets and a lack of established professional networks. Regional initiatives can help address some of these challenges by creating opportunities for artists to travel and perform outside their usual markets. MobiArts places this idea at the centre of its programme by treating movement between African countries as an important part of artistic development.
The project also challenges the idea that African artists must primarily look outside the continent to expand their careers. International opportunities can be valuable, but African countries themselves contain large and diverse audiences for music, theatre, poetry, dance and other creative disciplines. Building stronger connections between these markets can give artists more opportunities to collaborate and develop audiences within Africa. The MobiArts approach encourages artists to see the continent as an interconnected creative space rather than a collection of isolated national markets. This perspective can also help audiences discover artists from other African countries without having to rely on international platforms to introduce them.
The inclusion of disciplines beyond music further broadens the scope of the MobiArts Tour. Storytelling, stand-up comedy, dance, slam poetry and theatre each offer different ways of communicating cultural experiences and social ideas. Bringing these disciplines into the same regional project allows artists to interact across creative boundaries and exposes audiences to different forms of performance. This approach recognises that artistic exchange does not depend solely on musicians collaborating with other musicians. It can also emerge when performers from different disciplines share spaces, audiences and creative experiences.
For Nairobi audiences, the 2 October concert provides an opportunity to experience two artists whose work reflects different parts of Africa’s cultural landscape. Labdi brings a Kenyan perspective rooted in Luo musical traditions and the reinterpretation of cultural archives. Tommy WÁ brings influences from Ghana, Nigeria and several contemporary musical genres, alongside his work in poetry and visual storytelling. Their contrasting approaches create a programme that reflects the diversity of African creative expression. The event also gives audiences a direct connection to the wider regional objectives of the MobiArts Tour.
The Nairobi performance is therefore part of a larger conversation about how African artists can move, collaborate and build audiences across borders. Labdi and Tommy WÁ represent different creative traditions, yet their participation in the same tour demonstrates how those traditions can meet through performance. The MobiArts Tour provides a platform for that meeting while encouraging wider engagement between artists and audiences across the continent. As the tour moves through Kenya, Ghana, Rwanda and Côte d’Ivoire, it continues to place artistic mobility and cultural exchange at the centre of its programme. The Nairobi concert on 2 October offers a practical example of how regional collaboration can bring African artists closer to new audiences while creating space for different musical traditions, stories and creative perspectives to be heard.
