Born in what is now South Sudan, Emmanuel Jal grew up with war raging between the predominantly Arab Islamic north and largely Christian South Sudan. As a boy, he also lost most of his family including his mother, saw his house being burnt down and witnessed his aunt being raped by soldiers.
LONDON (AlertNet) - "Violence is addictive," says former child soldier-turned-hip hop artist and activist, Emmanuel Jal. He should know.
Born in what is now South Sudan, Jal grew up with war raging between the predominantly Arab Islamic north and largely Christian south Sudan. As a boy, he also lost most of his family including his mother, saw his house being burnt down and witnessed his aunt being raped by soldiers.
Aged eight, Jal was recruited by the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) rebels in their insurgency against the Khartoum government and spent five years fighting in the bush, seeking revenge.
Jal explained in a recent interview how easily the seed of revenge is easily planted in the mind of a child who has witnessed the atrocities of war.
In a conflict, fighters "come to a place, rape the kid's mother, kill his brothers and sisters, destroy them violently," Jal told AlertNet. "You don't need to tell the kid to do anything. The kid will know who destroyed them, what their names are. He will create his own enemies."
But the "sweetness" of revenge quickly turns bitter, Jal went on. "Revenge is very sweet at that moment. You want that person to feel what they did to you. You want them to feel it. Sometimes you do it to the wrong person," he said.
"It's a five-minute joy. It's like sex for five minutes, cheating on your husband for five minutes. After a while, you feel guilty, you feel bad, you'll try to find a way to justify it." In 1993, Jal ran away with around 300 other boys. After three months on the move, they reached Waat, a village in Akobo County, South Sudan. Fewer than 20 boys had survived.
Jal soon came to the attention of Emma McCune, a British aid worker, who smuggled him to Kenya and enrolled him in school before she was killed in a car crash a few months later. The church and music became sources of healing for the teenaged Jal, who discovered hip hop – “a way to talk on the beats” and to tell his story.
BECOMING A CHILD AGAIN
Describing himself as an 'accidental rapper', Jal released his first album Gua (which means 'good' in Nuer and 'power' in Sudanese Arabic) in 2004. A second album, 'Ceasefire' came out in 2005, in collaboration with Sudanese Muslim musician Abd El Gadir Salim.
"Ceasefire was challenging for me. To do something with a Muslim when I had my own long-time issues behind. I hated Muslins, Arabs. I wanted to kill them. But I healed, I forgave, I understood the politics. And I came to realise Abdel Gadir Salim is an amazing person in Sudan for human rights," Jal said.
"He's been speaking straight because he's seen these atrocities and he's been against them. So it was a honour to be in the same album." Jal has called London home since 2005.
With the money he made from his music and other sources, he founded GUA Africa, an NGO working with communities in South Sudan to help them overcome the effects of war and poverty. It focuses on education, finding scholarships for young people to go to school, or sponsors to sponsor them to study.
Now 32, Jal is a 'war child veteran', who has collected more scars and experiences than many people do in a lifetime. Despite his ordeal, he says hatred is just a poison that makes him sick. "At the moment, I don't know if my body is able to hate anybody. My system, I've learned, doesn't want to absorb things to be bitter. And if I persist to get angry, it makes me sick." Instead, he focuses on the joy music brings him. "Music is where I become a child again. It's where I get to see heaven," Jal said.
He said he was optimistic about the future of South Sudan, which gained independence from Sudan last year - the cherished dream of most southerners. "(South) Sudan is like a baby born in the jungle. There are diseases, there are predators, but I'm so sure that baby will survive. South Sudan will do well," Jal said.
Albums: 2005, Gua – 2006, Ceasefire – 2008, War Child – 2012, See me mama (International release October 2nd)
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A year ago, Sudan broke into two countries, will that end its long civil war?
Surviving a hitch in an army of boys
Emmanuel Jal: 'Music is my weapon of choice'
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