The reigning Swiss roots reggae champ Thomi Nikles, aka Famara, is not relenting in exposing his dual racial personality. "I am white outside and black inside," he confessed over the phone from Europe. "Reggae is black music and that's all about me." The vibrant performer, who's toured Western Africa a couple of times, wittingly captioned his recent and fifth full-length album "Double Culture." In Nikles's previous albums he loudly intimated that Africa has a deep place in him. Born in Basel, Switzerland, and after going through the grooming of percussion skills, Nikles ventured with the mic in 1996. "I love the songs of reggae greats like Bob Marley, Jacob Miller, Peter Tosh and U-Roy. But when I realized that the originality of reggae music is rooted in Africa I decided to visit the sun continent and get the actual traditional feel of the music I intend to venture in."
In early 1997, Nikles visited Cassamance, a region in Senegal. He was impressed by the originality of the music of the people living there. At a festival, he displayed his percussion prowess. "It was like a drumming competition. They hailed me and said that for a long time Cassamance has never had a visitor drumming perfectly to their style and rhythm." That percussion flair exhibition earned Nikles the Senegambian regional name, "Famara." "The people awarded me their most prized honour in the drumming game in Cassamance. They gave me the name of a legendary drummer(Famara). Nikles's sojourn and discovery gave rise to the distinct roots reggae style he calls "Afro-Bubbler-Reggae."
In 1998, he visited Gambia. In the arms of one of Gambia's leading variety sound producers, Kebba Taylor, he fused his reggae trait onto African spice and released a debut single. "I called it "Sunshine Bubbler" and it actually bubbled up to raise the curtain for my career." In year 2000, after two more hit singles, Famara released a full-length debut album. He aptly captioned it "Natural Fact." The ten-tracker exposed all the natural facts about his two-race identity.
Famara has made more albums since his debut. His sophomore album was titled "Sunlife." Through the songs spawned, Famara testifies his sweet experience under the sun. And the third effort tagged "Toubab Man" reminds all that though he carries the black and white emblem so high, while in Africa, they still see him as essentially a white man. Toubab is a Senegambian (Senegal and Gambia) name for a white man. His fourth project was self-titled. Tagged 'FamaSound, the thirteen-tracker expressed Famara's own expanded reggae mix. With a fifth effort, 'Double Culture', dangling in record shops in Switzerland and the entirety of Europe, the Afro-Bubbler-Reggae prince is set to climb to the crest of the reggae scene. The songs contained in the album have words that are sweet but at the same time forcefully pushing away at the dividing line between black and white. You feel the rich flavor of Afro-reggae, the contemporary sound stir, then the sentimental and well-balanced vocal flow vomiting the lyrics one would hurry to embrace. Famara's exclusive reggae style has continued to attract record companies and marketers, promoters and impresarios. Famara also stays close to representing his other roots, as Famara carried the Swiss flag at the 20th anniversary of the Reggae Summer Jam last summer in Germany.
Eric Orji is a freelance writer from Gambia.