Emmanuel Jal was in Sydney this week for the Sydney Writers’ Festival. Emmanuel Jal has been lots of things in his life. He was born in Sudan, and when he was about six or seven years old, he was taken from his family and forced to become a child soldier in the civil war. The fighting in Sudan has destroyed many people’s lives, and many people have died, children and adults. But Emmanuel Jal was lucky, he managed to escape thanks to a woman named Emma McCune. She smuggled him into Kenya and then adopted him. Even though he was safer in Kenya, not everything was easy. Emma McCune was killed in a car accident, and Emmanuel was alone again. Living in Kenya, he started making music, to help with the pain of his experiences. In 2005 he released his first album, called Gua, which means ‘peace’ in Nuer, his native tongue. Emmanuel’s music mixes different styles, but could mostly be called hip hop. Because he uses lots of African beats and chorus melodies that you don’t usually find in American Hip Hop, some people call his music ‘World Music’. But all music comes from the world, why should American music be called hip hop, or pop, but music from everywhere else be called world music? One of the ways that Emmanuel Jal’s music is different from some American Hip Hop, is that he wants it to be a positive influence on young people and communities. In his song ’50 Cent’, he criticises the American rapper 50 Cent for his video game Bullet Proof, saying “You have done enough damage selling crack cocaine/now you got a kill a black man video game/We have lost a whole generation through this lifestyle/now you want to put it in the game for a little child to play”.

As well as making music, Jal has written an autobiography, and there is also a documentary about his life. The book, the movie, and his latest album, are all called War Child. He also started a charity called Gua Africa, which is working to help communities in Africa, and build a school called the Emma Academy in Southern Sudan, named after the woman who helped Emmanuel to escape the war.

Listen to this blog post: