Even though my parents were not involved in music, growing up in Africa, it’s impossible not to be touched by music because it’s every where. My parents were healers but by the time I was 11 years old, I’d decided to transfer my healing gift to music. I started to sing with a band and now, many years later, I play drums, guitar, kora and I sing. I was lucky to be given this God-given gift of music

My cultural background is very rich because my mother comes from the Gambia and my father’s from Cassamance in Senegal. I was raised a Muslim and I still live fully by the faith. But over the years I’ve learned that no matter what colour our skin is, there’s one God that unites us all. For me there’s no question of black or white … we are all the same. Mind you, it wasn’t like that when I first came to the UK. People would come up and try to buy ganga from me, assuming because of my dreadlocks that I smoke weed. I don’t smoke, I don’t drink and I don’t do any drugs. I’m just into my music. I come with respect for my fellow man and then he in turn will respect me. We’ve got to end the war of discrimination. It’s not about the colour of our skin, our wealth or religion. It’s about living a good and happy life.

After touring Europe with a leading Gambian band, Ifambora, I decided to settle in Hebden Bridge, Leeds and make a go of it in the UK. That was 15 years ago. Now everyone knows me there. At first I used to have a barbeque for the neighbours where I’d start to drum a little bit. Before long, everyone wanted to join in. Now all the inhabitants of Hebden Bridge can play drums.

I’ve been fortunate enough to play all over the world. I’ve got an African reggae band called ‘Lamin & Tamala’. Tamala is the Mandinka word for ‘traveller’. I’ve also got a roots reggae band called ‘Lamin & African Root’.

Teaching is a major part of what I do as a musician. I take groups to my homestead in the Gambia. I’ve got a small drumming school there called ‘Tan Tan Kounda’ which means ‘House of Drums’. I was just bored hearing about how Western people were making very expensive tourist trips to Africa where they’d stay in a big hotel, eat fish & chips, take photos of animals and rarely meet the local people. I decided to offer something more affordable so once a person can arrange their own flight, then I can sort out their accommodation. Usually they stay with my family and with the help of my brothers back home, we teach them African drumming and dance.

‘Dundunba” is a song inspired by my daughter, Mariyama. She’s called after my mother and it evokes the beauty of nature and how we must accept what nature brings. In Africa, there’s a lot of desert. Then if the rains come, a man might go out and plant some cassava, a little ground nut and make the most of what he can harvest. If there’s no rain, he expects nothing. That makes life easier.