Skip to content

Music news, business and culture.

Join Newsletter

Busara Promotions

Zanzibar-based non-profit that organises the Sauti za Busara and FuTopia music festivals.

Based in
Zanzibar (Stone Town), Tanzania
Founded
2003
Founder
Yusuf Mahmoud

Busara Promotions is a non-profit organisation registered in Zanzibar, Tanzania, that produces two annual events: Sauti za Busara, a pan-African music festival held every February in Stone Town, and FuTopia, a music, art and wellness festival launched in 2025 in Fumba Town.

The organisation was founded in 2003 by Tanzanian promoter Yusuf Mahmoud, who ran it for twenty years before stepping back into a Board of Trustees role in 2023. Lorenz Herrmann, a German arts manager resident in Tanzania since 2016, has led it as managing director since July 2023, working alongside festival director Journey Ramadhan.

Sauti za Busara is Busara Promotions’ flagship event and one of East Africa’s longest-running music festivals; FuTopia is its newer sister event, run in partnership with the Fumba Town development on Zanzibar’s west coast.

More from Tanzania

Full directory

Distributor

Ziiki Media

Johannesburg-based African music distributor and content aggregator.

Johannesburg, South Africa ziikimedia.com

Streaming Platform

Boomplay

Africa-focused streaming and download platform launched in Nigeria in 2015, owned by the Chinese joint venture Transsnet Music.

Lagos, Nigeria boomplay.com

Pick your tempo

Who owns what, who got paid, and who is about to. The business behind African music, told like it is actually interesting (because it is).

  • The deals and catalogue sales nobody put out a press release for
  • Chart moves and streaming numbers we actually fact-checked (wild, we know)
  • Fresh names added to the directory, vetted before you ever see them

Free forever Ghost us anytime, one click

Get the inside track from Afrobeats Wire

Choose your speed. We will handle the rest.

How fast do you want it?

Your inbox is sacred. This address is used for the newsletter and nothing else, never sold, never passed on. Privacy policy.