About Us

Meet the team

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  N’famady Kouyaté

  Artistic Director & joint CEO

  N'famady Kouyaté is our Artistic Director and an energetic master musician from Guinea, West Africa. Malinké in origin, born into a griot/djeli family; where the djeli have hereditary responsibility for preserving traditional Mandingue culture through the sharing of ancient rhythms, songs, and stories. N'famady is a master balafonist, singer, percussionist, multi-instrumentalist, and the founder of Les Héritiers du Mandingue (a traditional Mandingue-modern fusion group in Guinea). N'famady is now resident in Cardiff, Wales and has been working on a number of solo and collaborative musical projects, as well as leading participatory music workshops.
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  Cathryn McShane-Kouyaté

  Managing Director & joint CEO

  Cathryn is best known as a British Sign Language-Welsh-English interpreter that has worked on screen but also in theatre. Cathryn has also been an active member of the Samba Galêz dance team since 2009 and took over as their permanent dance lead in 2021. Cathryn has over 26 years experience of community arts (especially carnival) as a dancer, maker, and parade coordinator (including Carnifal y Môr to open the National Eisteddfod in Cardiff Bay in 2018), but her passion is for joyful high energy dance of all genres. Cathryn began by taking on the role of project manager for The Successors of the Mandingue in 2019 and has successfully managed several Arts Council and British Council grant funded projects, as well as community arts workshop programmes and initiatives.
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  Keith Murrell

  Director and Creative Producer

  Keith Murrell is an interdisciplinary arts practitioner and organiser with an extensive track record in developing community projects and initiatives: currently Creative Director of Butetown Arts and Culture Association (BACA) and lead organiser of the Butetown Carnival.
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  Elaine Randall

  Director and Business Advisor

  Elaine Randall is an experienced and accredited business advisor who has worked in the not for profit and charity sector for many years - from CEO to business development consultancy. She has sat on the board of many local organisations including Bristol Credit Union; Since Parent Action Network; Tribe of Doris and Imayla Youth Charity. Elaine also enjoys Property development with a portfolio of properties in South Wales. Elaine shares her life with two birth children and several foster children being a foster carer for over 15 years and supporting over 40 young people; mothers and their baby’s for the local authority. Elaine’s love of dance and music has seen her travel so south America, Africa, and the Caribbean to experience her passions first hand, and given her performance and festival and event management experience.
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  Tahlia Walker

  Administrator (part-time)

  Tahlia is our amazing admin with attitude! Tahlia has a wealth of experience using various data programmes and communicative systems having been a project administrator for a large corporate company. She is also a jazz dancer who has a lot of experience working within the performance industry therefore she knows how to keep events running smoothly.
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  Naomi Reid

  Dathliad Cymru-Affrica Project Manager

  Naomi originally from Shropshire, spent 17 years in London and is now based in Carmarthenshire where she lives with her partner and young son. She has over 22 years’ experience in the not for profit sector and music industry, specialising in events management, communications, projects and office management and artist management. Naomi was with African women’s NGO FORWARD (working to end violence against African girls/women) working in various capacities from Trustee to Communications and Events Manager, here she used her passion for the arts to set up Musicians Unite to End Female Genital Mutilation (MUTEFGM) and Artists Unite to End FGM projects which included touring Ivorian Dobet Gnahore and US Blues artist Corey Harris. She has mostly worked with the African diaspora in the UK/Europe and on projects in Tanzania, Sierra Leone, Ghana and Nigeria. Naomi runs her own arts organisation Chanya Culture Promotions which supports African musicians/artists with a social change element to their work.
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  Suleiman Atta

  Creative Steps - Project Officer

  Suleiman atta hails from Bauchi, Nigeria. He recently graduated from the University of South Wales with a BA in Popular and Commercial Music. Suleiman arrived in Wales in 2013 and absolutely loves Wales. He is also a singer and songwriter and specialises in making afro beat music. In 2014 he won first place in a Welsh Factor competition and has been performing ever since. Suleiman now currently lives in Cardiff with his younger brother. He is fluent in Hausa which is a native language of Nigeria.
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  Joshua Whyte (aka Blank Face)

  Festival Assistant & Local and Early Career Artist Stages Co-Ordinator

  Blank Face is a recording artist based in Wales with experience across creative producing and music directing across various projects. Blank Face a.k.a known as 'Blanko' is a musical canvas who fuses different sounds as his paint and brush to create a beautiful picture. He has just over 300,000 music streams worldwide.
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  Ffion Wyn

  Community Outreach Officer - Dathliad Cymru-Affrica

  Ffion Wyn was a founder of award-winning initiative Ladies of Rage Cardiff, a community project platforming women and non-binary musicians in MOBO and electronic genres. Ffion has over a decade of experience of putting on gigs, festivals, and helping artists promote their music. Ffion has spent the last ten years working in the arts industry in Wales for organisations like Arts Council of Wales, Poetry Wales Magazine, and Aubergine Café & Arts. Ffion now works at Wales Millennium Centre as a Community Engagement Producer.
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  Safyan Iqbal

  Media and Film - Volunteer and Sessional Worker

  My name is Safyan Iqbal, I’m profoundly Deaf. I communicate through British Sign Language and spoken English. I have done a lot of different things with Successors - filming, editing, creating videos, designing posters & flyers, plus teaching basic filmmaking skills. I work freelance as an actor, songwriter, YouTuber, podcaster, and graphic designer for flyers and posters, and I'm open to trying new things as well. I enjoy being in films/TV shows, sharing music I listen to, and writing is something I am very keen on.
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  Tijesunimi Olakojo

  Dathliad Cymru-Affrica Community Stage Coordinator

  Tijesunimi (Teejay) is an actor, model, Bàtá dancer, musician, and theatre director. She is passionate about the representation and inclusion of black creatives in entertainment. She has worked with organisations like Oasis Cardiff, Comic Relief, Sherman Theatre, Watch Africa Film festival, The Creative Plug Cymru, Sub-Sahara Advisory Panel, and Chippy Lane Productions. She has global features on BBC Radio II (United Kingdom), Karuna Himalaya (Nepal), Maxi Magazine (Los Angeles, USA), African Welsh Exhibition (Cardiff), Arcade Fashion Week (Nigeria), The Eye International Photo Festival (Aberystwyth), and African Magic Yorùbá TV.