Amanas Music is a non- profit organisation based in Norfolk, UK committed to the promotion of African culture. In 2000 we organised the first visit of Mac Tontoh and the Kete Warriors to the UK, and with the group's return to the UK in 2001 we established Amanas Music as a unique cultural and educational resource in the East of England.

Project director MIKE CAMPBELL-SWAI trained as a workshop leader with Community Music under the late John Stevens of the Spontaneous Music Ensemble, before establishing the Fire House Popular Music Centre in north London in 1985. That year he was also a member of the organising committee for the UK tour of Amandla, cultural ensemble of the African National Congress. During the latter part of the 1980s he worked as a sound engineer in London, including sessions with the Happy Mondays, Big Audio Dynamite, Blade and Siouxsie and the Banshees. From 1992 to 1996 he was based in Ghana, working with Mac Tontoh, researching and recording various Ghanaian musics and recording with musicians such as Kwadjo Antwi, Oheneba Kissi and Amakye Dede. In 1994 he assisted Mac Tontoh in forming the Kete Warriors and worked as the group's tour manager and producer. After returning to the UK he formed Amanas Music Limited with Kathie Alban and has organised two tours of the UK for the Kete Warriors (known in 2000 as the Mac Tontoh Project).

Administrator KATHIE ALBAN was based in the Gambia from 1991-1997, where she played keyboard and managed two Senegalese bands based in Banjul (Akwa Afro 1991-94 / Dekebi 1994-97. She worked as a financial controller and administrative manager in the tourism sector in the Gambia from 1991 – 1997. She currently works in the charity sector as an administrator and manages Amanas Music Limited's administrative and financial affairs.

Workshop leader MAKHOU N'DIAYE, from Senegal, West Africa has been performing and teaching traditional Senegalese drumming technique and rhythms for the last ten years. From 1991 to 1997 he worked with a variety of West African musicians in The Gambia, performing both traditional and popular African music. Working in the major hotels of the coastal tourist region, he was a percussionist and vocalist in a Senegalese group, Akwa Afro, and subsequently formed his own group, Dekkebi, in 1994, which performed music ranging from reggae to Mbalax. Since his arrival in the United Kingdom in 1997 he has been organising regular percussion workshops in Cambridge as well as performing with his percussion group, Beaten Tracks. In 1999 he led drumming workshops at Drumfest 99 in Oxford and at Drum Camp 99 in North Norfolk, and in May 2000 he was the leader of the highly successful 'Let There Be Drums' drumming weekend at West Acre, Norfolk.

Please contact for further information:
Amanas Music
168 Milton Road
Cambridge
CB4 1LE

e-mail amanas.music@virgin.net
tel +44 (0)7968 158469
fax +44 (0)7968 407864