Emmanuel Jal – The Warchild

Just today, I found a devastating story about a Sudan Rebel who happens to find another life after series of drama in search of a better life.

Emmanuel Jal was born in southern Sudan, and while he doesn’t know exactly when, he believes it was in the early 1980s. He was taken from his family in 1987 when he was about seven 6years old, and sent to fight with the rebel army in Sudan’s bloody civil war. For nearly five years, he was a “child warrior,” put into battle carrying an AK-47 that was taller than he was.

Emmanuel’s father joined the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) where his mother was killed when he was about 7years old by the government’s soldiers.

He then decided to join the thousands of children traveling to Ethiopia who had been told that they could be educated there. However, many of the children, Emmanuel included, were recruited by the SPLA and taken to military training camps in the bush in Ethiopia.

The camp was disguised as a school in front of international aid agencies and UN representatives, but behind closed doors the children were training to fight.

“I didn’t have a life as a child. In five years as a fighting boy, what was in my heart was to kill as many Muslims as possible”. – Emmanuel Jal

When the fighting became unbearable, Emmanuel and some other children decided to run away. They were on the move for three months, with many dying on the way, until they reached the town of WAAT, which was the headquarter of a small group that had separated themselves from the main SPLA.

After a series of harrowing events, he was rescued by a British aid worker (Emma McCune) who smuggled him into Nairobi to raise him as her own child.

She died in a road accident a few months later, but her friends helped Emmanuel to continue his studies. To help ease the pain of all that he had experienced. Emmanuel started singing and music became his weapon of choice.

Emmauel Jal – Warchild

His music has since taken him around the world, performing at events like Madiba’s 46664 concert and Live8, alongside artists like Alicia Keys, Annie Lennox, Damien Marley, Razorlight, Supergrass, amongst many others.

He’s life was a teaching to all.

You can learn more about him, his music and biography at his official web site. http://www.emmanueljal.org

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