Ben Okafor mixes African musical sounds with the western traditions of Jazz and Rock, and perhaps most notably a large amount of Reggae.

His compositions are heavily influenced by the music he heard as a child growing up in Nigeria, but he also sites musical legends such as the Beatles, Stones, James Brown and of course the Wailers as big influences.

He is a singer songwriter, a poet, and a multi instrumentalist. He's almost as well known for his political activism as for his music, as a teenager he was a child soldier in the Nigeria Biafra war, and has dedicated many years to campaigning on behalf of children forced into the brutalities of warfare.

His spirituality is a constant factor in his music, and says about himself: "In a way, my music is about a vision of a world reconciled to God - the absence of this dream’s realization also influences what I write and sing about."

Although he has won recognition from many directions (appearing on stage with Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu among others, he still remains a badly under-rated and relatively low profile musician. Read more on Last.fm. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.