Back to Home page.

Jon's biography

Jon Lowe
Born Mbeke N’gola, circa 1790, in the shanty town of Miragoâne outside Port-au-Prince, Haiti on the island of Hispaniola, Jon rose from abject poverty to become Asogwe, the High-Hougan voodoo shaman.
After studying Afro-Caribbean art under Professor Endema at the University of Havana he opened the world renowned ‘TseNamo Studio’ in Jamaica. His best known work is the giant 47-metre tall drift-wood sculpture which dominates the entrance of the arrivals lounge at Newark International airport in New York. Jon’s story has been told several times, the definitive account being the tale, “Caribbean Rhythms, European Chants” in the October 1987 National Geographic. A tale which is still the subject of a bitter legal wrangle involving the big Hollywood movie studios.

A glass of aged, dark rum over ice is guaranteed to set Jon to talking of exotic infusions and mystical omens, magical potions and spiritual portents – you have been warned…

Jon now lives in Firsby, a reconstructed Anglo-Saxon roundhouse village outside Lincoln. Having recently gained his degree in ‘Circus Clowning’ from de Montfort University, Jon is now taking post graduate research into advanced balloon folding techniques and humorous vocalizations. He has already mastered 355 distinct raspberry sounds, a total bettered only by his hero, Charlie Cairoli.