As a young activist in the seventies I worked alongside Steve Biko, the acclaimed dissident who was assassinated by the apartheid racist South African regime in 1977. My involvement in the Biko-led Black Consciousness Movement was largely responsible for shaping my worldview. All the performances, workshops, teaching, writing, broadcasts and conflict resolution work I have done in different parts of the world since then bears the seed of this early development.

Shortly after arriving in the United Kingdom when I went into exile in 1980 I discovered Oval House Theatre in south London. It is here that I eventually became Director of the Oval House Music School and gradually developed the creative workshop method that I subsequently used in my community music work with some of the top British symphony orchestras, including the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Sinfonietta and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra.

Then finally I took these techniques even further across the world.