Ulenni Okandlovu to Debut Solo Project at ‘Taking Over The City Live!’ in Harare

Zimbabwean fashion innovator and multi-platform creative Ulenni Okandlovu is set to make a powerful statement with his first solo project at Taking Over The City Live! (TOTC Live!), scheduled for July 13 at Moongate Restaurant in Belgravia, Harare. This highly anticipated event will serve as both a milestone in Okandlovu’s artistic evolution and the launchpad for a new experimental music journey under the name Southern Hemis Co.

The live-recorded performance, currently being polished through intense rehearsals at Kulca Hauz Studios in central Harare, promises a genre-bending fusion of sound, art, and performance. With over 50 hours of in-studio preparation since late June, Okandlovu and his collaborators are crafting a cohesive one-hour set drawn from his diverse catalogue of unreleased and reworked material.

Southern Hemis Co. is not just a band — it’s a concept. Described as an ongoing collaborative project, it will feature select musicians over time. For the inaugural TOTC Live! edition, Okandlovu will be joined by special guest performers including Kyla Black and Tinofireyi Zhou — better known as Aero5ol of the Brixton No Jazz Society. Both artists are celebrated for their genre-defying styles and raw storytelling that merge music, spoken word, and poetry to interrogate urban African life.

For Okandlovu, this moment marks a deliberate shift. Widely recognised as the co-founder and lead vocalist of Afro-electronic group Bantu Spaceship, he has toured extensively across Africa and Europe, with standout performances at festivals like MTN Bushfire, Palp Festival, and Mozambique’s Mafalala Festival. Now, the Matobo-born creative is redirecting his energy inward.

“There has been a lot of growth,” Okandlovu said in a recent interview. “I am in a recharging phase, focusing on solo projects that help me grow as a creator. For the past four years, I’ve been doing a lot of work centred on community-building, curating spaces, and promoting brands for my friends.”

TOTC Live! represents not just a musical event, but a carefully curated cultural experience. Organisers describe it as a space where experimental and alternative sounds take centre stage — a showcase for artists who don’t fit neatly into mainstream genres, and for audiences seeking more immersive, intentional encounters with live performance.

“The idea came from the need to create a space where the artists’ and audience’s experience is the top priority,” reads an official statement. “We are committed to offering premium-quality sound, working with the best engineers, and ensuring that both performance and production exceed expectations.”

Okandlovu’s involvement ensures the visual and fashion elements of the experience will be just as vital as the sound. He is the founder of Skeyi & Strobo, the creative agency behind the Skeyi & Strobo Fabrik Party Convention, a boundary-pushing platform that has helped define a new era for Zimbabwean creative expression across fashion, music, media, and design.

Supported by the British Council and the Embassy of Switzerland through the Music Connects Africa programme, TOTC Live! is presented in collaboration with Obscura Films, Design Life Africa, and Skeyi & Strobo. It marks a fresh chapter for Zimbabwe’s experimental arts scene — one that values craftsmanship, collaboration, and authenticity.

Tickets for TOTC Live! are available online at FlippinTickets, and also at the National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Artlife Shop, and the venue. With limited availability and growing anticipation, the event is expected to be a defining moment in Harare’s cultural calendar.