Bankulli expands Chronicles of Afrobeats worldwide with four-continent tour

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 […]

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 doors that music alone cannot open. And Bankulli walked through every one of those doors.

From Lagos, 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 respected 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 exists 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 recognise: the project had grown beyond its founder and was evolving into a broader cultural platform.

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 dedicated to preserving and celebrating diasporic identity through art, culture and community engagement.

Their involvement was not symbolic. It was foundational.

They brought the kind of local credibility and community trust that transformed the Canadian leg from a visiting cultural event into something that felt deeply rooted within the communities it sought to serve.

The deputy mayor attended. The deputy premier attended. The Manitoba Museum opened its doors.

This was not simply a Nigerian artist receiving a warm welcome abroad. It was a cultural institution being received with the type of protocol often associated with diplomatic and governmental engagements.

“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 hosted at Del X, one of the city’s notable hospitality venues.

By then, the project had successfully travelled through five major cities across three countries, with each stop adding another layer of credibility, visibility and international reach.

Yet Bankulli sees the current achievements as only the beginning.

The United Kingdom leg of Chronicles of Afrobeats is scheduled for July and August. Following that, the project is expected to move through Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Dubai and Saudi Arabia as part of its next expansion phase.

Beyond those destinations lies an even larger vision, one that Bankulli says is not yet ready for public announcement.

“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 simply a tour.

It is a diplomatic and cultural infrastructure for Afrobeats—a network of institutional partnerships, community relationships, international collaborations and media visibility designed to outlast any single event.

For decades, African music has travelled largely through the success of individual artists. Chronicles of Afrobeats represents a different model: one built around institutions, partnerships and cultural diplomacy.

As governments, embassies, cities and cultural organisations increasingly engage with the platform, the project is evolving into something larger than entertainment. It is becoming a vehicle for cultural exchange, soft power and international engagement.

The cities are changing. The institutions are paying attention. And Bankulli’s Chronicles of Afrobeats appears to be only getting started.