Emmanuel Jal
Emmanuel Jal
Emmanuel Jalis a South Sudanese-Canadian musician, former child soldier, and political activist. His autobiography, War Child: A Child Soldier's Story, was published in 2009...
NationalitySudanese
ProfessionActivist
Date of Birth1 January 1980
CountrySudan
boys people trying
It’s no longer about the Lost Boys. They keep trying to make their way out, then they meet other people and empathize with them. It’s a story that a lot of people are going to discover their purpose from. When someone doesn’t know their purpose, they get lost.
solutions
Education is the only solution for peace.
want ordinary-people ifs
If you really kill, you don't want to talk about it.
gorillas monkeys forests
In Africa, you know, if you're poor, at least you can go to the forest and share some mangoes with the gorillas and monkey.
moving identity needs
I'm constantly seen as a 'foreigner,' and I need my passport to prove my identity, to keep moving and to carry on my work.
rap trying sound
I'm rapping in English but in an African way. I'm not trying to sound like an American.
years poverty aids
I grew up in poverty. For 25 years I was fed on aid.
football family-love games
I lost my childhood. I didn't play football or video games. Or have birthdays or the love of a family.
god war land
[During the second Sudanese Civil War] what was actually killing us wasn't the Muslims, wasn't the Arabs. It was somebody sitting somewhere manipulating the system, and using religion to get what they want to get out of us, which is the oil, the diamond, the gold and the land.
continue people
What I always wanted to do when I was a kid was to speak out and help people which I continue to do afterwards.
affects destroys heal invisible lifetime lives people physical war
War destroys people's souls. Most people focus on physical injuries, but the invisible injuries can take a lifetime to heal and affects the lives of generations to come.
excited fake people weird
I'm kind of weird - I don't get excited. Sometimes I fake that I'm excited just to make people happy.
crippling ways
When you don't educate the people, you're crippling them. You are, you're not giving them ways to survive.
allowed dead die future gone grew mean people time
As a child, I didn't know what they mean by 'to die.' So I grew up in a place where people used to die all the time, but a child is not allowed to see a dead body. When you ask, 'Where is so-and so?' you're told, 'He's gone to another world where we all go to live in the future.'