Faith in Practice
Disarmingly honest
Born in Tonj in Southern Sudan, EMMANUEL JAL was a little boy when civil war broke out. He was still a little boy when he joined the fight, but now uses his music to campaign against child soldiering.
In 1988 my village in Sudan was attacked and we escaped to the next village. In that village they started sending kids to school in Ethiopia. When we arrived in Ethiopia they asked how many of us were willing to be trained [for the Sudanese People's Liberation Army] . So I happened to agree to be trained and so did many other kids because we wanted revenge for our families. I was eight-years old.
I was in the war zone for four years. I find it hard to talk about now because I get flashbacks. It's not easy to reflect back. You're waiting for the enemy and the bombs are dropping. There's not enough food sometimes so you have to eat dried maize. You could spend the whole day fighting without food. And when you get food you can't eat it because it smells of the shells and the gunpowder.
My strength has been my faith, you know, because my mum was a Christian. My mum planted a positive seed. Even when I went through my struggle I would always remember my mum and I would pray. One day we were gathered under a tree and we were all waiting to die. And I prayed. I was going to eat my best friend, who had died, because we had no food to eat. I've expressed it in one of my songs called 'Forced to Sin'. God told me 'Hold on, you will get something.' Then in the morning a bird came and that's what saved me from eating a friend. It was a black crow - a stupid black crow! If I had strength I would have grabbed it but a friend of mine shot it. He then died though, so I ended up eating all of it. The nails and the beak, everything. I cooked it but I was eating it even before it was ready.
My closing track on my latest album, Warchild, is called 'Emma'. As in Emma McCune, the British foreign aid worker. She was the woman who rescued me because I was a child soldier. She saw me and together with her friends they decided to talk to the commanders and I was disarmed. Then she smuggled me into Kenya. She was later killed in a car accident in 1994. When she died my life crashed and that's when I started doing music. I decided to write songs and put on a concert to help raise money for kids like me. Kids with issues: ex-child soldiers, lost boys and street kids.Then I recorded the album Gua and it went to the charts in Kenya. One of the songs brought me international attention and I was invited to perform at Live Aid. It also won a gospel award. Then in 2005 I came to England and didn't go back. My second album [Ceasefire] was very political. Through it I was saying that we can live together, we don't need to fight. The land is enough so let's share it.
Generally I tell a journey and my perspective on life. The new album begins with a track called 'Warchild' which gives an introduction to how I became a child soldier, then there is 'Many Rivers', a cover of the Jimmy Cliff song. Another track is called 'Shadow of Death'.
There is also a track called '50 Cent' which is my perspective on hip hop. I love his music but my problem with 50 Cent is this: it became personal when my cousin was influenced by his G-Unit team. At school they formed a little gang. And he knifed a white boy and was put in jail. I said to him 'You're a refugee, these people opened their land for you, now you are turning against them'. I realised that the music they listen to makes them think they are gangsters...so that's how the 50 Cent song came out.
I'm a believer, I'm a Christian. But my faith is for me. So what I do is what is inside me. The image of Christianity has been defiled. The Rastafarians think the Christians are horrible; they say that Christians colonised Africa in the name of God and slaves were taken. My mum was a Muslim and so was my dad, but they converted to Christianity. I saw my mum cry [she suffered from depression] and the only time I saw her happy was on a Sunday when she was singing gospel songs. I go to church sometimes. I go to any church that preaches something positive - to listen to a good message and a good preacher. It could be a Protestant or it could be a Catholic as long as they are talking about the faith that I believe in. Then I'm fine.
Jacqui Smith has got a copy of Warchild. She likes the song '50 Cent'. I met her in one of the interviews I did. I was actually shocked that she likes what I'm doing! She was saying 'Keep doing what you're doing, it's good and we'll support you.' Your government is powerful and they can do a lot. If they want to, they can. Especially with the crisis in Sudan. No other government understands Sudanese politics like the British. Because they colonised it. If they want to fix it, it's a one night thing. They need to exercise the muscle and the power they have because it's still there. Recently Khartoum was attacked and I saw that a child soldier was captured. He was bleeding all over and it was devastating for me. All over the world I may be the one speaking for child soldiers, but I hope people hear my voice and do something.
Emmanuel Jal was talking to Matt Cresswell
Warchild, Jal's third album, is out now on Sonic360 records. He will perform at the Nelson Mandela Birthday Concert this summer. His charity can be found at: www.guaafricaonline.com
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