The raw Afrobeat and roots music of Nuru Kane is coming to the county before a long summer tour, organised by a Kent record label. Chris Price caught up with the smiley Senegalese singer.

As Nuru Kane spoke from his French home, the warmth of his character could have thawed the snowy tops of the mountains in the Alps where he lives.

“I am like a hunting man but I am not a hunting man,” said the Afrobeat performer in his deep Senegalese voice.

“I am hunting for peace and to save the animals,” added the infectiously-friendly 39-year-old, and you can sort of see what he means.

During our conversation in his slightly broken English, there were times when the discussion – aimed at promoting his upcoming Kent gigs and summer festival tour organised by Kent-based record label Smugglers Records – would veer into the almost incomprehensible. Yet for every five minutes of nodding blankly as he spoke in quick, jumbled sentences, there would be a moment of beautiful clarity, when everything he said made perfect sense – kind of.

“I’m ready to defend everyone with peace, without blood but with music. That is why I call my band BFG – because we have no country. We are one people.”

For someone with such a unifying world view, it is appropriate that he was nominated for best newcomer at BBC Radio 3’s World Music Awards in 2007 for his debut album Sigil. He released his second record Number One Bus in 2010 and feels a strong affinity with music lovers in the UK.

“The rest of Europe try to see what you can bring for them but the English philosophy is show us what you have and it is all right to be different,” he said.

“Since my BBC nomination I have written in English. My music is understood by the English. My second album Number One Bus was about the bus I used to take from Bermondsey. I was watching all these people, some who came on the bus to make a problem and some going to work but all these people were different. The album is about when we got off – about getting out and seeing life. ”

Born in Dakar in Senegal, Nuru joined his first band aged 17 and played bass guitar in various bands until he moved to France, aged 25, looking to form a new group. It was then that he discovered Gnawa music in Morocco, played using the guimbri, a three-stringed guitar which has become Nuru’s signature instrument.

“By chance I was in Morocco in 1992, in Marrakesh. That was the first time I heard them playing and I said, 'My God, what is this?’ The day after I was in the market and I could hear the sound coming from a shop and since that day, the guimbri has become my main instrument.

“I used to play reggae and people would listen and say it sounds like Bob Marley. Then I would change my sound but every time people would say it sounded like someone else they know. The day I discovered the guimbri, I had my own sound.”

The British public will be the first to hear songs from Nuru’s forthcoming third album, set to be called Yes We Can: If Anybody Can Nuru Kane.

A summer UK and festival tour is being organised for Nuru by Deal-based label Smuggler’s Records, a relationship which came about after label founder Will Greenham saw Nuru in London. He approached him about coming to perform in Deal and a firm friendship was formed.

“I said, 'OK I will go to see what it is like’ and since I met them I realised they were not just calling me to play but because they respect my philosophy,” said Nuru.

“Since that day we have been not just colleagues but friends who work together with one philosophy. Since that moment I knew I would work with them every time I come to the UK.

“I like the work they do with all their musicians. That is why I am happy to be coming back. I am ready to show the UK what I have got.”

Nuru Kane and the BFG play a gig at Sandwich’s St Mary’s Arts Centre on Friday, March 9. Doors 7.30pm. Tickets £12, in advance £10. Visit www.wegottickets.com