Darfur: former Sudanese child warrior speaks up

Written by Meaghan McAvoy

Dinner and a movie is so cliché.

On Feb. 14, an audience gathered at Miami University’s Hall Auditorium for a nontraditional Valentine’s Day evening.

Emmanuel Jal, former child soldier and Sudanese hip-hop artist, came to Oxford to share his story and inspire people to take action against genocide.

“I believe that I’m the voice of my country at the moment — for the people of my country who cannot speak,” he said.

Jal, who “puts his fight into the music,” uses rapping as an outlet to share his story and inspire others.

Jal was brought to Miami University by the student antigenocide coalition, STAND.

Dr. Oliver Mogga, a visiting Miami professor from Sudan, said that Sudan has been a battle ground since its independence in 1956.

Sudan, he said, “is a heterogeneous society of many languages and cultures,” that has been in an almost constant state of oppression.

Jal said that he first became a child soldier when he was recruited by the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. He was taken to a training camp in Ethiopia where the children were taught basic training skills like how to obey, defend and make weapons, said Jal.

The kids were disciplined and trained for about six to nine months, and were given AK-47s for battle.

According to Jal, when the war became too intense, he was one of 400 kids who decided to escape. Only 16 survived the three-month long trip. Battling extreme starvation and thirst in the desert climate, the children drank dew off blades of grass, and in desperate measures, were forced to drink their own urine to survive. The children hunted and roasted snails, vultures and hyenas for food.

Jal, who opened and ended his talk with songs off his album WARchild, said that he was saved by a woman named Emma McCune who adopted him and smuggled him to Kenya.

“She invested in me and many other children, and that’s why I’m here today,” said Jal.

After McCune died in a car accident, Jal said he started rapping as a way to cope with his feelings of loss. Jal’s rap, “Emma,” was his final song of the evening, which is a tribute to McCune.

Jal thoroughly believes in education and is building a school in South Sudan.

He currently lives on only one meal each day and donates the money from those skipped meals to his project.