For East African music to claim a larger share of the global conversation, the region must first define its own sound and story, argues Christine “Seven” Mosha, Head of Sony Music East Africa.
Artist Development in Action
Mosha watched as Tanzanian artist Abigail Chams, whom she signed to the label in 2022 at age 19, performed alongside Senegalese legend Youssou N’Dour at the Africa Forward Summit 2026 closing concert, Le Concert. The event, attended by French President Emmanuel Macron and Kenyan President William Ruto, saw the pair deliver N’Dour’s 1992 hit “7 Seconds.”
“For a long time, it was just marketing, marketing, selling,” Mosha said of Chams’ rise. “Now people understand who she is. We have everything in place. Now we’re moving.”
Weeks earlier, Mosha was in Nairobi for another Sony artist, Nyashinski, whose Showman Residency, a seven-show run blending music, theatre, and dance, drew more than 11,000 people. Together, the moments illustrate Mosha’s dual focus: elevating East African talent while building the systems that enable it to travel.
A Career Forged by Ambition
A Tanzanian native, Mosha describes herself as the only senior manager at a major label from East Africa, male or female. Her path included radio presenting at MTV Base, launching her own label, and managing Tanzania’s Ali Kiba as he became one of the region’s biggest stars. Sony approached her while she was rethinking her next move, and when the company outlined the territories she would oversee, she asked to add the Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia.
“One of the things that I’m known for is my ambition,” she said. “I am incredibly ambitious, and I set certain goals, and I tend to achieve them.”
At Sony Music East Africa, Mosha signs artists from across the region and connects them to the company’s global infrastructure, which spans labels including Columbia, Epic, RCA, Legacy, Masterworks, Sony Music Latin, and Sony Music Nashville, with rosters that feature Beyoncé, SZA, Tyla, Doja Cat, Harry Styles, and Tame Impala. Her role also involves developing the markets themselves, aligning a major-label framework with local industries that do not always fit neatly into existing structures.
The Case for Structure and Cultural Definition
Asked what East Africa most needed from a major label, Mosha answered with a single word: “structure.”
“What has to complement that structure is culture,” she added. “When the music is right, the culture is defined, and the structure is there, everything aligns… the infrastructure, the investment, the economy. At that point, there is a product that is well understood and consumed.”
Mosha argues that East Africa’s challenge is a lack of definition. Too much of the region’s musical identity, she suggests, has not been clearly named, documented, or explained to the rest of the world. She points to Tanzania’s bongo flava as an example.
“If I asked you what bongo flava is, you probably wouldn’t have a straight answer,” Mosha said. “When did it start? What defines it? What kind of instrumentation does it use? It has not been documented. That information has never really been put out there before.”
In her view, music is harder to market, explain, and export when its story has not been clearly told. East Africa cannot fully break through, she says, unless it first explains itself to the world.
“Our story needs to be out there,” she said.
