Musically and spiritually Njacko draws on the lessons he learned in Africa from his family, mentors and village life. But Njacko is also a realist, and he has travelled extensively to learn and hone his crafts. Njacko began playing percussion and making instruments at age three. He descends from a family with strong musical traditions. His Grandfather and Father were respected Kalimba (thumb piano) players. His Mother is a singer, dancer and percussionist. From a culture of strong traditional dancers, his Grandmother was known as the "Queen of Nkoua", a traditional, authentic women's dance. With her assistance, Njacko met the elders of the village who taught him to play music starting with the hand drum (toumkak), kalimba (African thumb piano) and African harp (zaa koua).

He left home at the age of 17 years and travelled through several African and European countries to further his musical knowledge with African Master Musicians of many different cultures and traditions. "The key of learning is not to do things like your teacher," says Backo. "You learn, then you develop your own thing. I¹ve learned so many things from so many people, and this, for me, is like transitions in life through the spirit of music. I¹ll learn from them, but I don¹t just stick‹it¹s like a key to another door."

Interests:
In life, Njacko¹s main interest is to transfer his knowledge to other people, mostly to the younger generations. When he finds out the result is positive, his goal has been achieved.

Favourite motivational expression:
"Music can cure people. It's universal, it's spiritual. ...There's magic there. We as human beings cannot even describe it. It's so strong that it's impossible to define what music is. You can't know."
-- Njacko Backo

Heroes/Role Models:
Njacko dedicated his last CD, "The Conscience of Africa" to Nigerian musician Fela Kuti. To Njacko, Fela was the only artist in Africa that never gave up his quest to point out how extremely corrupt African politicians are. Fela was put in jail countless times before he died, and in the end, he was killed by the politicians.