Born to the family of Mr. Kebba Landing Drammeh (chief engineer then at the Gambia Marine) and Ya Aret Mboge (political activist as head of the female wing of the Gambia Muslim Congress) on June 23rd, 1952, at 22 Hagan Street in Banjul, Oko Drammeh is a star, the all-time African music promoter and has produced more music concerts of African artists than anyone in the world.

Drammeh accurately predicted an increase in the popularity of Africa's music. Although there were few African musicians known outside of Africa when he began the African Music Festival in Amsterdam, Oko has continued to broaden the exposure of African artists to the world through festivals, concerts, radio and TV programs, educational conferences, symposiums and now through the Internet and emerging media.

The Gambian-born international is a music producer for Higher Octave Music of Hollywood, California and distributed by Virgin Music Group USA and EMI records in UK. Oko is one of the leading promoters of African music festivals in the world and his festival in Amsterdam, launched in 1983, has grown into a major event, drawing more than 10,000 people annually. He organized the first African Music Festival in the United States, holding the fete at the John Anson Ford Theater Hollywood in Los Anglese in September 1997.

In 2001 he moved the African Music Festival from the city of Delft to Amsterdam at the Paradiso together with U.S. partner Lasting Value Company, in a three-day event featuring musicians from South Africa, Congo, Ghana, Gambia, Senegal and several other countries. The festival has featured the major artists in African music as well as the lesser known master musicians from all over Africa.

The African Music Festival has featured stars like Angelique Kidjo, Fela Kuti, Manu Dibango, Osibisa, Franco & the O.K. Jazz, Bembeya Jazz, Miriam Makeba, Hugh Masekela and the new generation of artists, including the late Lucky Dube, Salif Keita, Youssou N'Dour, Mory Kante, Kofi Olomide, Papa Wemba, Thione Seck, Ali Farka Toure, Toure Kunda, Ifang Bondi, Super Diamano and Alpha Blondy.

Oko presented the African Music Festival Stage in China in 2005 and in 2008 in Japan. There he toured Asia and opened offices with partners in China. He toured over 90 countries and 5 continents including Europe, North & South America, Africa, Asia and the Caribbean and on an African cultural tour of Jamaica, Dominica, Martinique, Guadalupe and the Virgin Islands.

Presently Oko Drammeh is in the Gambia trying to promote local events and young and upcoming artists in the Gambia and also scouting for new talents.

Bt: Give us a brief history of the Gambian music scene?

Oko: I am Oko Drammeh – I have been a producer and promotion manager for the well known Gambian musical band Ifang Bondi. However before Infang Bondi I was a night club disc jockey playing music and entertaining crowds for many years in The Gambia. Working with the Infang Bondi I have traveled the length and breath of the Gambia and Senegal working with community groups, youth groups, social organizations, religious organizations, educational institutes and so on organizing fundraising activities to enhance culture in this country.

During this period, I was able to discover what a music scene is like – I was able to see how youth groups or Bantabas or clubs used to contribute money and invite bands to play for their local communities. When I say music scene I mean that people in the towns and villages had organizations that invite these bands; and these organizations were the source of income for our bands in those days. That is why it was not an industry but a scene because when there was Christmas or Tobaski, these music groups will tour the country through the invitations of these social clubs.

This is what we call a scene because we were not able to record our music, film our events and there was no government institute as well as legal organizations to protect the music from copy right and also manufacturing music to make CDs. All what we did was gracing occasions and play live shows and private dance galas. We never had an industry but a music scene which was very active and lively

Bt: But do we have a strong music industry in the Gambia as we are talking now?

Oko: We are heading towards that because the industry has to be something that works hand in hand with the government and also have legal apparatus. Presently, I am engaged in a series of meetings with Sheriff Gomez [Youth and Sport minister] and a committee of youth leaders who are involve in music and management.

What we are doing is to create and industry whereby all the different components of music – band managers, studio owners, musicians, composers, filmmakers etc are in place. We are encouraging each of them to have their own associations so that when we have 5 to 10 we will form a federation which will be working with the Gambia government. It is only through this that government can bring in money and build institutions - arts academy or creating a performing hall etc.

It is not easy to support one artist at a time because everyday we get more new talents which must be catered for. So we do not have the industry yet but at the ministerial [Youth and Sports] level we are working to structure this properly and I think working with the National Council of Arts and Culture, its copy right office, we are trying to have an industry whereby Gambian music will be 70 percent on the radio and institutions that exploit music using for commercial purpose will pay fees to the copy right office and then 70 percent of that money will be sent back to the artist as income to support their livelihood. So industry is taking a baby step; it will grow but we are still functioning as a scene at the moment.

Bt: How impressive is the Gambian music scene as you defined it?

Oko: The impression I have is that everyday new talents are discovered and that is why I have the passion and like for the music. I am everyday excited when I see a new talent and the impression I get from that is as soon as we restructure a body to coordinate the various activities we will be able to channel all our visions, talents as well as the Gambian music we make. This is because the music of the country will be solicited by a board of artists who can read and write music so that we can sell in the international world something that is not necessarliy Gambian but yet made in the Gambia and produced by cultural experts.

Bt: Mr. Drammeh in 1983 of course you organized the first African Music Festival in Europe, Holland. What was the inspiration or motivation behind such an initiative?

Oko: I left the Gambia in 1981 to Europe to meet my family. I was then educated by Ifang Bondi Jazz Band. Whilst I was in the Gambia working with this jazz band, I happened to know that their music was unique to the world and that the style of the music they were playing was competitive to other brands of music we have in Africa like the afrobeat from Nigeria, the soukous music from Congo etc. Suddenly the Gambia came with the afromanding sound.

So I had this full confidence that if all these music brands can compete in Europe, how about the afromanding sound? So because of this confidence I had in that music and the supreme talents of the individuals, who were in that band, I went to Europe, and in 1983 after I had settled properly, I decided to invite the band to this Festival as well as other African musician giants like Manu Dibango from Cameroon, the saxophonist, who is one of the greatest musicians in the world, an artist who Michael Jackson even copied his music and perform it at the time “Do you wana start something.”

This was originally done by Manu Dibango of Cameroon. So when I started this festival it attracted people from all over Europe who knew what good music was; who knew what original music is. This made it possible to have platform for African music. My festival was the first of its kind to be a platform for African artists. There was a platform for Salsa music of South America, there was a platform for reggae and calypso music of the Caribbean, but there was no platform for African music except theatre and ballet dancing. So with my initiative I introduced the first African Music Festival in Europe and I make it a platform for all of Africa to showcase their talents and culture to the world.

Bt: And how has this initiative of yours helped leading African musicians invited to this festival in terms of engineering them in the development of their career?

Oko: Whenever I organize a festival I follow the way the world is organizing events. What I did was I had a press team and we had press kits including the biographies of the groups [bands], their photographs and during these press conferences, I would talk about the predictions of the future of African music. In this predictions I would mention names like Salif Keita, who is a young guy working in Mali with ambassadors and one day he would be big artist; I also mentioned about Youssour Ndour, a young Senegalese musician who one day would be big artist; I talked about Mori Kanteh, Guinean Kora player etc.

I forecasted and predicted accurately that African music would take center stage in the world through my festival, my intellectual artistic and cultural background information. So the festival was received by the media and secondly the Dutch government and many European governments had an agenda in arts and culture. With their agenda and the funds allocated for research and information, they gave me their ear and the financial support to structure this festival properly and use it as a form of information and education and to also empower their radio and television services; something that has elevated the status of the festival to world level. So each year all the African artists would contact me instead of me contacting them to come to the festival. So this festival has created a source of income for the artists and propelled some of them to become national icons and own TV stations in their countries.

The late Lucky Dube of South Africa, Youssour Dnour of Senegal have become household names in their countries whereby they are able to create institutions for educating [through] mass media and this is all coming through my initiative and knowledge.

Bt: And will you beat your chest today to say that yes you are behind the success of some of these artists who attended your festival?

Oko: (Laughs) Oh yes I can beat my chest as you said and I am behind the success of 90 percent of the African artists because many of them their names are obscured names. In some foreign countries, if you say Oko Drammeh for instance is not like John or Thomas. They are more used to European names and many of the artists if I mentioned them first it becomes a laughing matter. But as time goes on these artists prove themselves and their names become more familiar with the Europeans.

Also most of these artists are very grateful to me – they call me and are always in close contact with me. For example when I go to Senegal, Youssour Ndour really is very receptive to me – he gives me private car to go around, take care of me and this is the same thing if I go to Nigeria or elsewhere. Thank God I have visited most of the African countries and the superstars of those countries always introduce me to their heads of states, their ministers to say that this Oko who has help us greatly.

Bt: Mr. Drammeh this brings me to this question – in 1985 you invited Youssour Ndour to Holland. What was your continued relationship with him?

Oko: When I mentioned Youssour Ndour’s name before 1985 they asked who is that and then I said I will bring him one day. So I organized a show in Paradiso, a hall in Amsterdam, Holland which is called a rock palace where famous artist play, I invited him [Ndour] there and then I organized a tour of Holland for the Senegalese artist. In this event, I also invited my friends from the BBC [British Broadcasting Cooperation], leading journalists from musical papers that are consumed by the whole nation of the United Kingdom to the festival to see these new phenomena. When Youssour Ndour played in my festival and he toured throughout the Nietherlands, he extended his tour to Denmark. I had a friend by the name of Mr. Kenday, Danish – he organized a tour for Youssour in Denmark too.

Bt; I understand that the late Lucky Dube, a South African reggae superstar was your artist as a manager. How did you come into contact with the South African music?

Oko: I came into contact with South African music through the late Miriam Makebba and her former husband Hugh Masekela, who is a trumpetist and the first African artist to have a number one hit in the United States. After my familiarization with South African music, I worked with South African poets, dance groups, various organizations in that country. But I got my history working with the South Africans in the Gambia during the time of apartheid as a result of many South Africans being expelled from their country due to their political activities.

So the Gambia was a home for many refugees throughout Africa. Even to this day the Gambia is hosting refugees due to our political neutrality and our positivism towards Africa. So there were lot of Namibians, Sowetans living in the Gambia, and during this period I shared a lot of sympathy and political ideologies with some of these people.

Discovering Lucky Dube was just a stepping stone in the mileage because I discovered him very young and his manager was his dancer. So it’s like a small street group. They went to Washington D.C to a club called Kilimanjaro and I was in Washington D.C and I am a friend of the manager; so I saw them perform there – very energetic, disorganized, but still very enthusiastic. So I decided to bring them in Holland in 1994 and gave them lots of concerts as well as guidelines. In fact I changed Lucky Dube’s uniform [military dress] into African-Gambian tie and dye – Laughs.

So he started wearing batiks tie and dye. I am very close to his family, his children to this point. His wife who is from Tanzania is my friend, but I gave Lucky a lot of shows in America, especially in Los Angeles in a place called Hollywood Live where he performed. When I walk in the streets of Serrekunda and see his clips some of which I participated in the settings, I feel proud to see my seeds germinating in my own country.

Bt: Unfortunately this great African music superstar, Lucky Dube was gruesomely killed in 2007 in his own country. How has this contributed in bringing down the spirit of African music?

Oko: It’s true – when Lucky Dube was killed it affected many people but we must remember one thing – many popular artists died through the cause of violence and maltreatments. Some of them have suffered terrible positioning in terms of torture, imprisonment, murder. Popular people all over the world go through this experience. Normally mankind is like a snake - you feed them but they can bite you. This is with the success John Lennon, who is the leader of the famous Beatles of the UK, the number one pop group, the band leader was shot by his number one fan because he loves him too much.

Another singer called Marvin Gaye, a US sole singer was shot by his father. So very famous people die tragically and some famous people die poor. But their mental capacity is always the nerve center of the society and their brain power sometimes can be a bloodline to the heartbeat of a nation. This is why when somebody like Lucky Dube was killed, I just think about Jesus Christ and other prophets as well as other great artists who were also killed doing the right things for a just cause for humanity, thus becoming victims of their own success.

Bt: Oko you also visited the Caribbean Islands including Jamaica. How did you see the music of Caribbeans including reggae which is popular in the Gambia?

Oko: I was invited to Kingston Jamaica by Yvonne Barkley of Voice of America and Jahco Thellwell music producer for Dennis Brown and many. I did interviews for JBC the Jamaica Broadcasting cooperation radio & TV as well as interviews on Irie FM and many station in different perish including St. Ann's, Port-more, St Elizabeth, Montego Bay.

I have to inform you about the music production teams in Jamaica like the Penthouse crew belonging to Buju Banton, the Shocking vibes to Binnie Man, Conscious crew to Tony Rebel, Jammy Crew which house Bounty Killa, the Tuff Gong crew which is the Bob Marley family, Exterminator crew crew which is Dean Fraser, Sizzla, Luciano, etc. They operate like a football team with lots of Artists and sound uniformity.

They compete fiercely and fight over imitation and sound clashes do erupt in most cases out of these rivalry. They have studios, production offices, organize tours in America and in Europe and each production house have a list of talented artists. Sometimes, only one artist making it big with massive record sales can support the production team of any. Some times they produce a hit tune and many of their artists ride the rhythm and make it big in the industry.

I went to Jamaica many times and I lived their on longer periods. When I lived in Los Angeles, I was very much into newspaper, radio and television and such allowed me to go on a research on reggae in Jamaica.

When I was in the Caribbean, I traveled all the islands too. What happened is that when I study the reggae I was reflecting to the point that the Gambian bands were playing reggae in the1960s and 70s because many Gambians would travel at the time to the UK free and they would meet the Caribbean communities there; and we also made the same music like the Jamaicans. So when the Super Eagles staged here and had the number one hit call the ‘Lisa Lisa,’ this hit was so popular that even when the Jamaican reggae superstar, [Jimmy Cliff] came to the Gambia, he was very fascinated by the advancement of reggae in the Gambian capital at the time.

So when I was in Jamaica I was also following the roots of that brand of reggae – half reggae and half calypso. They called it ska music. While there, I visited the Bob Marley Family, the studio and listen to what kind of music they produce. So I had been going around visiting studios in Jamaica checking the history of mento music, which was the original music of the Jamaicans.

In 1994, when President Jammeh took over I was in Jamaica so I went to the radio station to announce to Jamaica that the Gambia has a new leader, a dynamic revolutionary. So I was not surprised when I saw the president embracing visiting Jamaican artists from Jamaica. If you go back to Jamaica now they all know President Jammeh and they talk highly of him and the country.

Bt: Mr. Drammeh your never-ending search for exploiting music in diversity has also taken you to all the way in Asia including China, where I understand you also organized an event. What can you tell us about this event as well as the exposure?

Oko: In China I did a production for the Chinese government in a place call Naninng, south of China. It was called the Naninng Folk Music Festival. In this festival I worked as a chief of production and I had to work with the Chinese media – which mean giving information to one billion people. So my office team was very efficient as I worked with people like Michael Chen, Mr. Jun Wang, etc and I invited people from all over the world to come to this festival. It was a two-week event and after I did my first festival, I was invited again for a second time to organize in Beijing a Convention of Music and Arts so that the Chinese people would learn how to organize festivals, how to organize fashionable pop events, cultural expositions and anything that relates to culture.

So in 2009 I was in Beijing to organize tourism for the Chinese government whereby people from Russia and other Islands in the South-East Asia would come to China and see China’s collaboration with Africa. So I built African homes with huts, with leaves and palm trees and I also did a visual room as well as African business club in China so that businessmen who wants to come to Africa can go to this business club to get the information. China is a lovely country.

For Japan, in the year 2009, my Soto Koto band was invited to Japan to inaugurate the city of Kyoto as the world's Green city. The event was attended by Mikel Gorbachev, the visionary of Perestroika and former President of the Soviet Union. The band performed 2 concerts in Tokyo.

Please read the rest of the interview next week Friday in our Part II edition of Oko Drammeh.