Aza Nsabimana, professionally known as Mlay, is a Burundian refugee artist, singer-songwriter, artivist and cultural peacebuilder based in Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya. She is a founding member of ExileKey Artist, a refugee-led collective using music, creative expression and cultural exchange to promote peace, social cohesion and understanding across displaced and host communities.
Through her music, Mlay explores themes of identity, hope, resilience, belonging and unity, using personal and collective stories from displacement to create spaces for connection and dialogue. Her work reflects the belief that creativity can help people move beyond differences, reclaim their voices and imagine peaceful communities.
As part of ExileKey Artist, she notably collaborated with internationally acclaimed cellist and 20- time Grammy Award winner Yo-Yo Ma on YeleleMama, a collaboration that brought together refugee artists and global musical voices to celebrate culture, connection and the power of music to bridge communities.
Mlay was also selected as a winner of the Creatives4Peace Youth Online Innovation Challenge, recognizing the potential of young creatives to contribute to peacebuilding through innovative forms of artistic expression.
Her work continues to demonstrate how refugee and young artists can move from being portrayed only through the lens of displacement to becoming active creators, storytellers and peacebuilders shaping conversations about peace, identity and social cohesion.
