Emmanuel Jal
I wrote this story in June, and it was printed in July of this year under the title, “The Long Journey of Emmanuel Jal” on Biermag.com. It currently is showing an incorrect byline……..
Once in a while I am awestruck by a story and Emmanuel Jal’s is the stuff of legends. It begins in Sudan, a land of extremes—deserts, swamps, rainforests. The largest country in Africa, it has a long history of conflict from other nations, even from its early beginnings as ancient Kush and later Nubia. In modern times, though, Sudan has been plagued by internal civil wars that have produced unimaginable horrors. Born into this nightmare was Emmanuel Jal.
Though it was difficult enough as a villager to live in the midst of war, suffering famine and raids on their home, Jal was taken from his family, as many young boys were, to fill the ranks of the rebel armies. The cause may have been just: independence from a tyrannical government that engaged in wholesale slavery and discrimination against non-Muslims. But that idealism was lost on a seven-year-old boy, though anger and hatred at his oppressors was ever present. Jal and hundreds of other boys were marched to Ethiopia to begin training in discipline and handling a gun.
After six years of war, Jal joined 400 of his comrades, who became known as the Lost Boys, and deserted the rebel camps to flee across Sudan to a a refugee camp in Waat in the southern part of the country. Only 16 survived that long journey, and Jal was one that did. Here, his life changed dramatically.
Emma McCune, a 23-year-old British Foreign Aid worker, had come to Sudan at about the time Jal had started his military training. She stayed for a short time and returned six years later to teach for the British organization Volunteer Services Overseas and later for the UNICEF-funded Canadian organization Street Kids International, which built or re-opened more than 100 village schools in southern Sudan. Through her efforts, she rescued more than 150 children of war in the country. At Waat, she found Emmanual Jal and smuggled him into Nairobi. Unfortunately, she died in a car crash hardly a year after rescuing the boy.
Married to Riek Machar, one of two leading southern guerrilla commanders, Emma and her bravery in Sudan inspired a book, Emma’s War, written by a journalist friend Deborah Scroggins. The book is also coming to the screen in 2011, starring Nicole Kidman, amid some objections from McCune’s family because they feel it sensationalizes (and possibly scandalizes) Emma’s life.
Supported by the McCune family, Jal was able to stay in school in Kenya where he was safe. He became a Christian and started singing in a gospel choir. He sang in concerts in the church and in the local school. He discovered American hip-hop in Kenya. The growing African hip-hop movement was just beginning, and Jal was able to connect with that, too. “I didn’t understand the history, but I enjoyed listening to rap because it was shocking. The problems, the issues,” he says. “I like the hip-hip that talked about the neighborhood going through issues; and I identified in a different way.” Jal began dropping some rhymes into his local concerts.
“Music is a form of communication,” Jal says. “This is what spoke to me as a young man…Musicians are prophets, and music is the only thing that can speak to your soul without your permission.”
As a child of war, Emmanuel Jal has been able to speak about peace like few hip-hop, or even reggae, artists can. In 2005, Emmanuel Jal released his first album, Gua, which means peace in Jal’s native Nuer tongue. The title track was broadcast over the BBC all across Africa, becoming a number one hit in Kenya. Gua also earned him a spot on Bob Geldof’s “Live 8” concert in the UK.
Music has brought Jal to the world’s stage. His music has been used on three episodes of ER, the National Geographic documentary, God Grew Tired of Us, and the recent feature film, Blood Diamond with Leonardo DiCaprio. He also has performed with Moby and Five for Fighting in the film, The Concert to End Slavery (2007), and he toured with the National Geographic All Roads Film Festival in 2007, playing major cities in the US, including New York, Los Angeles, Washington DC, and New Orleans. Last June, Jal was tapped to perform at Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday celebration in Hyde Park, London, and went on to share the stage with Alicia Keys, Annie Lennox, Damien Marley, and Stephen Marley at the Black Ball in London later in July. He also addressed delegates at the UN in New York in the same month.
Emmanuel Jal and Nelson Mandela
Emmanel Jal’s latest CD, Warchild, was released last year on the Sonic360 label (distribution by ADA Global/Fontana). He also is the subject of a full-length documentary, also called Warchild, that has been touring the film festival circuit. It premiered at the Berlinale festival last year and won the Cadillac audience choice award at the Tribeca Film Festival. In addition, his autobiography, co-written with Megan Lloyd Davies, was released in hardcover in February of this year by St. Martin’s Press.
“I believe I’ve survived for a reason, to tell my story, to touch lives,” Emmanuel Jal states in the title cut of his album. He does this through all of his efforts, even in his own charity, Gua Africa, which strives to work with individuals, families, and communities as they rise above the effects of war and poverty. Centering on education, the charity is currently working in Kenya and Sudan, but hopes to expand into other areas of Africa, partnering with other organizations. Gua Africa’s first big project is the Emma Academy on fifteen acres in Leer, South Sudan. The facility will serve the whole community and become a safe haven for children of war and poverty.
But it is Emmanuel Jal’s music that is raising his country’s issues and urging peace in the world. In his CD, he writes about how the demand for oil has helped devastate his country, the horrors of war, the illusions of the music industry, and the temptations and responsibilities of success. His CD also has inspirational songs such as “Stronger” and his new lyrics to the Jimmy Cliff song “Many Rivers to Cross.” After performing in New Orleans, he wrote “Ninth Ward,” about poverty even in affluent America. And, of course, he includes a song about Emma McCune, whom he calls “his angel.”It is one of several he has written about her, but this one, he thinks, is his best effort.
Lyrics aside, Warchild, isn’t a run-of-the-mill hip-hop album with a canned beat. It is an innovative mix of rap and spoken word, singing, incredible reggae and Afrrica instrumentation, and thematic additions, such as guns on the title cut. Jal is joined on the album by other voices including C. Outten. The production is complex, layered, and beautiful. Even if you never get into the message Jal puts forth—though how could you escape its soul-touching pull?– you will love Warchild! The album is not only brilliant, but blessed.
Emmanuel Jal has made a long journey, but it’s not over for this dedicated hip-hop artist.
