Yunasi is a 8-person band (7 Kenyans and 1 lady from France) that plays a wonderful eclectic mix of what they term as Afro-Fusion.  They use traditional instruments and mix English, French, Luo, Kiswahili, and Luhyia languages into a pleasant mix of great music.  They have developed a style that they call Sesube, a mixture of séga, isuga and isukuti. 

The band feels that music can be used to enhance social responsibility and work in the slums of Mathare, in Nairobi, Kenya, to show youth how they can use music and sport to escape the grip of poverty.  In an inimitable style, they show how innovative the East African music scene is and try to draw attention to the wonderful musical talent that resides on the eastern part of the African continent.

The band is produced by Tedd Josiah who has produced many great musicians including Gidigidi-Majimaji, Hardstone, Kalamshaka, Suzzana Owino, and Necessary Noize, to name a few. 

In March 2006 YUNASI were announced as Prize winners at the prestigious US International Song Writing Contest held in 2005 for the song “Ji Opogore“(The Difference of People)– obtaining 3rd place in the World Music out of 15,000 entries from all over the world.  They have just won the award for BBC’s Next Big Thing 2007 competition.  We look forward to seeing what else they have in store for us.

They also won the 2004 Kisima award for best Afro Fusion band and were nominated for an All Africa Kora award in South Africa 2003.

You can learn more about this talented group at their web site.