Child Soldier Turned Rapper

Now Fights Poverty and Gun Control

Apr 21, 2007 Sandra Williams

Emmanual Jal escaped from war in Sudan as a child and now spreads his message of peace. From the age of 7 they trained him for combat, but his peaceful spirit won out.

Emmanual Jal defied the odds by escaping from war as a child and now is a spokesperson for the campaigns Control Arms and Make Poverty History. At the age of only seven, he was sent to train for combat to be a child soldier for Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) in Southern Sudan and Ethiopia. Several thousand other children were also sent with the same fate.

Emmanual was taught to speak eight different languages, but only later learned of the reason for his being there. By the age of thirteen he was an experienced soldier and had been forced to assist with unspeakable atrocities. He finally escaped with help from Emma McCune, a British aid who smuggled him out, enrolled him in school and adopted him. Unfortunately she died a year later and Emmanual was left to struggle in poverty as a refugee in Kenya. He lived in a small metal shack with no electricity or water, but he was determined and became inspired to sing and write at the age of twenty after getting involved with a church choir.

Emmanual Jal's Music

In his music he speaks about the tensions between Christian and Muslim religions, but he turned to music as a form of therapy and believes his music is a source of healing and a good way to share common ground with enemies. Although they disagree politically, he’s observed that they still dance to his music. He believes he survived for a reason and that reason is to tell his story to touch lives. He bravely shares some of his struggles such as being so starved that he was tempted to eat his dead comrade’s flesh during battle.

Hopefully Emmanual will help people understand how easy and cheap it is to obtain firearms in Sudan and how important it is to control arms so that people aren’t shooting each other so freely.

Now he has obtained a recording contract and the opportunity to spread his message which is peace and how violence is not the answer.

• He won an American Gospel Award and a Community Service Award in Kenya for promoting peace among young people.

• His music has been used on three ER episodes, a National Geographic documentary and more recently in the movie Blood Diamond.

• His album is called War Child and his music combines his African influence with present hip-hop and an inspiring message for peace.

Reference: Video Series, War Child, National Geographic

Emmanual Jal website, 2006

The copyright of the article Child Soldier Turned Rapper in Poverty/World Development is owned by Sandra Williams. Permission to republish Child Soldier Turned Rapper in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Emmanual Jal

Comments

Sep 5, 2007 7:34 AM

sadashivan :

Child labor is a consequence of poverty as hunger, homeless and others so is not as easy as we think. Even NGO's and prominent individuals can not help eradication this issue until and unless they influence appropriate Governments to reevaluate the economic policies and rural economic growth. Till now rural economy is only known as agricultural economy and never emphasized on add-on value products. Governments have to consider growing and generating rural employment. Target set for 2015 to eradicate poverty may not be achieved until we understand roots and real causes of poverty.
http://www.sadashivan.com/quotpovertyquotasubject/
90% of child laborers are rural children who migrate to cities and end up begging, prostitution, domestic helpers, or other odd jobs. It is easy to say "give them education and not work", but the question is who will give? How many will benefit? Individuals and organizations have been helping these children for several decades. Have they achieved any result? Each day numbers and methods of child labor is growing.
http://www.sadashivan.com/
In books or written records the number of child labor may have reduced but physically, it is different, and areas of child labors have added like begging, domestic help, prostitution, pickpockets, street entertainment, which was never there 2-3 decades back.
I herewith enclosed the video clips and my sites to know more about relationship between poverty and child labor issue.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kVPk9Jns28k
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4744275778188781484
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QlnKpAQ1aA
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8849854166464553063
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZCMAwYigzk

Illegalizing child labor is an invitation to corruption in bureaucracy. Despite child labor laws, child labor numbers are on the increase. Arresting child labor in factories have opened many sectors for them to get involved specially in flesh trade, begging, street entertainment, pick pocketing and robbery etc.

Sep 7, 2007 5:48 PM

Sandra Williams :

Sadashivan, thanks for the information and input. I see your point about making child labor illegal as it does continue regardless. Better and safer conditions still need to be enforced for children who are laborers.

Related:
Domestic Workers in El Salvador
http://poverty.suite101.com/article.cfm/domestic_workers_in_el_salvador
Child Slaves in China Freed
http://poverty.suite101.com/article.cfm/child_slaves_in_china_freed

2 Comments