Emmanuel Jal: War Child
Laura Jacobs
Issue date: 10/8/08 Section: News
Sudanese child soldier turned activist and musician; that is Emmanuel Jal. Born into a civil war, he is a man who does not even know his own age. When he was still a small boy, he was turned into a killing machine along with countless other children. Before he was even 10 he had killed and seen people killed. Now, Emmanuel Jal is telling his story and telling it through music.
Jal began his presentation with a poem summing up his experience as a child soldier. It was intense, moving, and just the beginning of the amazing story that is his life. He explained to the audience that they would be receiving the abridged version of his story. "It would take two hours to tell the whole thing and I want to leave room for questions," he explained.
Emmanuel Jal was born in a small village in Southern Sudan when a civil war was beginning to break out. His father was initially a government worker, but soon joined the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) when Emmanuel was still very young. When things began to get too intense in Jal's village, his mother moved their family to a grandmother's house in another village.
Unfortunately, that village, and all other villages they found their way to, was raided. Jal's mother died when he was seven years old. Soon, he was found by his father again who sent him to join SPLA. Emmanuel, as well as other boys, was to go to Ethiopia to be schooled. The children made the journey entirely by foot with many dropping dead from exhaustion or being plucked out of line by wild animals. He explained how they only traveled at night when the mass of people would not be easily seen.
The school, however, was a training camp for soldiers. There, the boys would be taught how to use weapons, weapons that were sometimes bigger than they were, and taught to kill Arabs. Jal told about how once he accosted an older boy, bothering him about how he got his uniform and gun. "He punched me [in the face] like 'Shut up!' and I thought to myself, 'I want to be strong like that," he told.
Jal began his presentation with a poem summing up his experience as a child soldier. It was intense, moving, and just the beginning of the amazing story that is his life. He explained to the audience that they would be receiving the abridged version of his story. "It would take two hours to tell the whole thing and I want to leave room for questions," he explained.
Emmanuel Jal was born in a small village in Southern Sudan when a civil war was beginning to break out. His father was initially a government worker, but soon joined the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) when Emmanuel was still very young. When things began to get too intense in Jal's village, his mother moved their family to a grandmother's house in another village.
Unfortunately, that village, and all other villages they found their way to, was raided. Jal's mother died when he was seven years old. Soon, he was found by his father again who sent him to join SPLA. Emmanuel, as well as other boys, was to go to Ethiopia to be schooled. The children made the journey entirely by foot with many dropping dead from exhaustion or being plucked out of line by wild animals. He explained how they only traveled at night when the mass of people would not be easily seen.
The school, however, was a training camp for soldiers. There, the boys would be taught how to use weapons, weapons that were sometimes bigger than they were, and taught to kill Arabs. Jal told about how once he accosted an older boy, bothering him about how he got his uniform and gun. "He punched me [in the face] like 'Shut up!' and I thought to myself, 'I want to be strong like that," he told.
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