The view from the UK

By Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly's Sam Duckworth

I saw the first Africa Express UK gig, on the Park stage at Glastonbury, and it was the highlight of last year for me. It was fantastic to see some of the greats of African music, like Rachid Taha and Baaba Maal, jamming with Damon Albarn and Jamie T, and making the kind of music that you don't normally see at Glastonbury. Growing up in Southend, I lived with my uncle who was a big world music fan, so I was aware of some of the artists, but I didn't really know them.

I was then fortunate to be invited to go to Congo with Africa Express in February. There's this misconception that Africa is wallowing in poverty and waiting to be rescued. But when you go there you see that, though the people are incredibly impoverished, they're not downtrodden; it's such a vibrant environment. The compassion and positivity was like nothing I'd ever seen. Being out in Africa also makes you realise why this music is constructed the way it is, and since then I've fallen in love with those artists and with Afrobeat.

There was a crazy amount of improvised jamming with other artists while we were there. If you'd recorded everything, there would have been about 14 albums worth. That synergy of people getting together, just jamming and improvising, is something the Africa Express events in the UK have really managed to capture. They have bands from all over the world, predominantly led by really talented African musicians, and there's a five-hour stage slot and no stage times. People have no idea of what to expect and leave thinking, 'Wow, that was special.' I was really nervous before the Liverpool Africa Express gig, but we all travelled up from London together and as soon as I got on the train I knew it was going to be fine; there was such an air of excitement.

I'm now hoping to spend as much time as possible in Africa, and at the moment I'm in Cape Town as part of the White Ribbon Alliance convoy across South Africa to promote safe motherhood.

In some ways it feels a long way from Southend, but then we were in a bar last night and they were playing drum'n'bass and Top Gear was on the TV, so it felt just like home.