About CAST and CREW
 
Ben Okafor (Writer/Performer) is an internationally known roots-reggae singer-songwriter.  He has pursured a prolific career over the last 30 years releasing over 10 albums including Nkiru, Generation, Shadows, Coffee With Lazarus and, most recently, Acoustic Close Up.  These, together with his charismatic stage presence and innumerable tours to every part of the globe, have earned from his worldwide reputation.  Ben is also known for his work as a storyteller/educationalist, actor and political activist.  He supported Archbishop Desmond Tutu on a UK tour in 1990 and, through his music, has been an active campaigner for the Anti-Apartheid Movement, Oxfam, Amnesty International,  The Refugee Council, the Make Poverty History campaign and the Coalition To Stop the Use of Child Soldiers, for whom his single, Thing With War, was released in 2003.  Ben was born in Enugu, eastern Nigeria, in 1954.  His music and early life were shaped by his experiences of the Niger-Biafra War (1967-70), in which he served as a boy soldier in the Biafran army.
 
Justin Butcher (Writer/Director) read Classics at Oxford, and trained subsequently at Drama Studio London, graduating in 1992, since when his work as a playwright and director has gained global recognition, with credits including: Scaramouche Jones, starring Pete Postlethwaite (Dublin Theatre Festival 2001, UK tour 2002, World Tour 2003); The Madness Of George Dubya (Arts Theatre, London, 2003); A Weapons Inspector Calls (Pleasance London 2003-4, Fringe Report Best Political Dramatist Award 2003); Breaking Strain (Edinburgh Fringe 2003); Guantanamo Baywatch (New Players Theatre, London, 2003); The Firebrand (Royal & Derngate, Northampton 2007); The Millennium Man (Theatre Royal, Bath & Uk tour, 2000); King Of fools (Westminister Abbey, 1995, and UK tours).  He has also written three plays for BBC Radio 4:  Chukwudebelu -- Preserved of God (with Ben Okafor); The Man On The Pillar, about St. Simeon Stylites, and The Seven White Masks Of Scaramouche Jones, starring Warren Mitchell.
 
CJAM The choir is called the CJAM choir and this is an acronym for Christian Joint Agreement Of Musicians.  This choir is made up of different singers from the Croydon community and we all come together twice in a year to hold concerts for the community.  Pastor Ayo Ayeni is the visioneer behind this choir and also serves as the senior Pastor in Droydon Tabernacle, a member church of the Redeemed Christian Church Of God.  [RETURN]
 

Segun Gilbert was born on March 20, 1970 in Kano State of Nigeria.  He began playing the acoustic guitar at an early age and eventually became the band leader to a gospel group known as The Rolls Band, setting him up in the direction as a music director/producer.  Now a renowned musician, playing many instruments, Segun has produced and directed many of Nigeria's top Gospel Choirs and Artists over the last two decades, as a producer on many hits and radio commercials.  Segun now resides in the UK and works as a music director for churches and as an itinerant producer for various organisations, and has staged a number of major concerts in the UK and West Africa.  [RETURN]