This year's African Music Festivals will be held in three cities in China. The international festival organised by the African Music Festival in China is scheduled to take place on the first week of December 2008.

The festival which will be held in auditoriums  in three Chinese cities namely Beijin, Shangai and Hanan City is expected to gather a lot of African artistes, leaders as well as other partners with the view to bring China and Africa together.

This was disclosed by Mr Oko Drammeh, a renowned Gambian producer who just returned from China where he was invited by a group of Chinese companies who formed a corporation to help Africa.  According to him, he was appointed the President of the corporation - Bejin-Sheng-Shijia-Nian International Culture and Development Company  in China.

"Our company is acting as a bridge between Africa and Asian companies trying to do business in Africa. .It was also meant to bring good relations between Africa and China," he said.

The renowned Gambian producer added that with this festival, they will be inviting any African president in China.  According to him, they will also build an African theme park  called African village which will be a village that looks like Africa, structurally featuring components of Africa. "With these, we believed w can give a lot of business opportunities in Africa. Artistes will perform in over thirty cities to generate more attention for Chinese companies to know more about African issues," he said.

According to him, artistes involved are Manu Dibango from Cameroun, and the Senegalese Mbalax superstar - Youssur N'doure, Hagh Mase Kela and Miriam Makeba, all from South Africa.

In these event, he went on, will include additional cultural events like African Fashion Shows and Textiles, African Arts and Painting Exhibition as well as Chinese artistes collaborating with African artistes.

He pointed out that Chinese artistes will also visits Africa  on a similar tour to promote business and trade. "The company  I work with is a combination of companies that are involved in the Asian fashion and textile industry, and other companies that are responsible for special events like Olympics and Chinese Music Festivals. Another one is an association of business partners who want to invest in Africa," he said.

Mr Drammeh noted that he will do his best to make sure Gambians recognise art noting that  he will do anything possible to promote the rich cultural heritage of the country to that part of the world.  "We want to also built good relationships with Chinese painting industries and theatre so as to develop the good relation between the Chinese people an the Gambia, " he concluded.