Sudanese artists campaign for Sudan unity

Sudanese artists have launched their own campaign for maintaining Sudan's unity, a reality that has long evaded politicians in the country.

The campaign comes as Sudan prepares to vote on a referendum next year on whether the south should gain independence from the north.

Musicians, rappers, and painters call for solidarity and warn of grave consequences if the country splits.

Mohamed Vall reports from Khartoum, Sudan's capital.



Source: Al Jazeera - Wednesday, 12 May 2010.

Mia Bittar's Wow Women film - Women's Votes (Julie Flint) - EU US Observers: Standards of Sudan's election fall short

WARM THANKS to a Sudan Watch reader in Khartoum, Sudan for sending in this 3 minute visual poem that weaves together images of Sudanese women artists in Khartoum. Honouring positive and powerful ...

Wow Women by Mia Bittar

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Quote of the Day

"I particularly remember one young Nuer woman who told the men: “This war is your fault. We women are tired of giving birth to children only to see them slaughtered.” All the female delegates applauded her when she proposed a “revolution” of her own. “We will stop giving birth!” - Julie Flint, 16 April 2010 (see report below)

For the record, here is a copy of Julie Flint's great comment posted at Alex de Waal's blog, Making Sense of Sudan, in reply to his blog post 15 April 2010 Women's Votes.

Julie Flint:
April 16th, 2010

Alex, how interesting that women in the Darfur camps not only voted more than men, you say, but that they voted at all, with Abdul Wahid so strongly in favour of a boycott. Do you know what the voting pattern in the camps tells us about Abdul Wahid’s support there these days? Many people are saying that JEM stopped voters in areas under its control. Was there any coercion in the camps?

The interest of women in voting – and presumably in a negotiated rather than violent settlement of conflict – reflects the experience of the church-supported people-to-people peace process in southern Sudan, where the dynamism and determination of women was very apparent. They really gave the SPLA a bashing. I particularly remember one young Nuer woman who told the men: “This war is your fault. We women are tired of giving birth to children only to see them slaughtered.” All the female delegates applauded her when she proposed a “revolution” of her own. “We will stop giving birth!”

A good friend of mine, Awut Deng, walked 30 miles to mobilize women – despite being in the difficult early stages of pregnancy – because the New Sudan Council of Churches organising the process had no budget for mobilization. Everywhere she went women told her they wanted peace because their children were dying. As one delegate said, “In the past we fought over cows, but only fighters died. Now even children and women are killed.” I imagine the thinking of women in the Darfur camps is not so different.

Awut spoke anywhere and everywhere. She interrupted the work of courts to ask: “May I speak?” She spoke to students and teachers in schools. She invited herself to the naming of children. She used, she told me, “any little corner I could find.” She slept in the bush and in the street and went without food for days.

If your impression is correct – you don’t give any details – surely one conclusion must be that more effort must be put into supporting a peace constituency of youth, women and other members of civil society, to limit the margin of manoeuvre of the soldiers and politicians, especially given the late-in-the-day preference of so many of the latter for boycott – unsupported, as far as I can see, by any back-up plan. Viewed from Khartoum, is the plan as it seems to be from here – that there is no plan?

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Note from Sudan Watch Editor
If anyone reading this has emailed me and not received a reply, please forgive me. I have had health and computer problems while monitoring news on Sudan's elections and now must take a break.

Thanks to a reader of Sudan Watch for kindly sending in a report from www.riftvalley.net by Marc Gustafson that is "based on months of interviews with government officials and assessments of government documents about the creation of electoral districts. The report exposes some violations of Sudan's new laws and calls attention to some ways in which the elections might be manipulated."

Thumbs up to SRS, BBC, VOA, UN News Centre, UNAMID, UNMIS, RNW, Xinhua - Thumbs down to Sudan Tribune and Reuters' Opheera McDoom (and their followers blogging at Save Darfur & Enough)

In my view, the majority of journalists and bloggers reporting on Sudan's elections have acted jaw droppingly irresponsibly. The only reports from Reuters on Sudan that I trust are those by British journalist Andrew Heavens in Sudan. France based Sudan Tribune is a clearing house for rebel press releases and anti-government propaganda. So far, I have found that the most accurate news reports are from SRS (Sudan Radio Service), BBC News, UN News Centre, VOA and China's Xinhua News Agency, to name a few. Whenever Sudan watchers read a news report on Sudan, I hope they do a search at Google news to see what else is being reported and sleep on it before jumping to wrong conclusions and spreading dangerous propaganda and inaccurate news.

LATEST NEWS

AU chief hails peaceful Sudan polls
From Agence France-Presse (AFP) - Saturday, 17 April 2010 13:31:

(ADDIS ABABA) - African Union chief Jean Ping hailed Sudan on Saturday for "peacefully conducted" elections as Khartoum kicked off vote-counting after five days of balloting.

Ping "wishes to commend the people of the Sudan and Sudanese political parties for peacefully conducting the just-concluded multi-party general elections," the bloc said in a statement.

"These elections constitute a fundamental milestone towards realising (its) democratic transformation ... as espoused by the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement," it added.

Khartoum and its southern half signed the deal which provided for both the elections and the referendum, ending a bitter decades-long civil war that left around two million dead and some four million displaced.

Ping noted that the polls "were faced by administrative and logistical problems", but he hailed the electoral board for its efforts to address the shortcomings.

The African nation's first multi-party election in over two decades took place from Sunday to Thursday when Sudanese voted to elect their president as well as legislative and local representatives.

Southerners also voted for the leader of the semi-autonomous government of south Sudan.

Results are expected around April 20.

Sudan elections 'failed' to meet international norms
From BBC News online - Saturday, 17 April 2010 15:47 UK - excerpt:

Two international organisations monitoring the elections in Sudan say the controversial polls failed to meet full international standards. The EU and the Carter Center, led by former US President Jimmy Carter, said there were significant failings, citing reports of intimidation and harassment. However, both concluded the polls were a significant step towards democracy.

"It is obvious that the elections will fall short of international standards that are expected of advanced democracies... The people's expectations have not been met," former US president Jimmy Carter told a news conference.

"Turnout is very high, 60%, but with significant deficiencies," said EU mission chief Veronique de Keyser at a news conference in Khartoum. "These elections did not reach international standards, not yet."

Neither of the observer groups called for a re-vote, but recommended instead that the lessons learned be applied to next year's key referendum on Southern Sudan's independence.

Observers: Sudan Election Failed to Meet International Standards
From The Voice of America (VOA) - Saturday, 17 April 2010 - excerpt:

The European Union monitoring mission in Sudan and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter said Saturday that the elections fall short of international standards because of widespread problems.

During the five-day vote, observers reported a series of problems, including intimidation, incomplete voter lists and a shortage of voting materials.

Opposition groups have also complained. Several parties partially or fully boycotted the vote, including southern Sudan's main party, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement. And some groups accused the ruling National Congress Party of planning to rig the results.

Final results are expected to be announced Tuesday.

Some Sudanese officials defended the election Saturday, saying it was unfair to expect Sudan to meet international standards. A member of the National Elections Commission said officials had done their best for a war-torn country with little electoral experience.

Standard of Sudan elections fall short
From Radio Netherlands Worldwide (RNW) - Saturday, 17 April 2010 - 1:21pm

The elections held in Sudan earlier this week did not meet international standards.

Nevertheless, they were an important step in the democratisation process says Veronique de Keyser, head of the European Union observer mission in the east African country. People in South Sudan were able to vote for their own autonomous leader.

The three-day elections for the presidency, the parliament and local government were extended by two days because of logistical problems and delays. The turnout for the elections, the first in 20 years in which several parties could take part, was 60 percent. However, the legitimacy of the poll was brought into question when President Omar el-Bashir's two main rivals withdrew from the running.

News from SRS - Sudan Radio Service - Saturday, 17 April 2010:

NEC Announces Election Re-run in 17 Constituencies
16 April 2010 - (Khartoum) – The deputy chairman of the National Elections Commission, Prof. Abdallah Ahmed Abdallah, says there will be a repeat of the elections in 17 constituencies within sixty days due to errors in the distribution of ballot papers. Speaking to SRS in Khartoum on Thursday, Abdallah said that ballot boxes were misplaced in these constituencies. Full story

EU Observers Declare Elections Did Not Meet International Standards

17 April 2010 - ( Khartoum) – The European Union Elections Observation Mission to Sudan says that Sudan's elections did not meet international standards. The EU-EOM Chief Observer, Veronique de Keyser, addressed a press conference on Saturday in Khartoum.

[Veronique de Keyser]: “It is difficult to compare this elections with other elections, taking into account the particularities of the voting, the history of this country, the stakes and the future. But in terms of the methodology that have been applied by the European Union which is very strict I can only say that these elections have struggled to reach international standards. However, in the process, there were signs of a more democratic future. For instance, the withdrawal of a great part of the opposition in the north strongly reduced the competition in the moment of voting but not the interest during the electoral campaign. The observers have been the direct witnesses of the democratic space that was open to the parties.”

De Keyser said the ruling parties in both northern Sudan and southern Sudan dominated the elections.

[Veronique de Keyser]: “These elections have suffered from significant deficiencies but it has to be taken into account that the Sudan is immense and that these elections are the first in 24 years. In the north and the south these elections have been dominated by the parties in power. The serious incidents during the campaign have been sporadic, with reports of intimidation and harassment of some candidates.”

De Keyser said the EU-EOM will continue to observe the counting of ballots nationwide and will make its final recommendations after the announcement of the final results of the elections.

NCP Rejects EU Observer Statement
17 April 2010 - (Khartoum) – The spokesperson for the National Congress Party reacted strongly to the EU observer statement, Fathi Sheela says that it’s too early to judge the elections in Sudan. Full story

Carter Center Critical of Elections Procedures
17 April 2010 - (Khartoum) – The Carter Center says that Sudan’s elections have fallen short of international standards because of major flaws in the polling process all over the country. The former US President and founder of the Carter Center, Jimmy Carter, held a press conference in Khartoum on Saturday. Full story

No Security Problems in Darfur During Voting Says HEC
17 April 2010 - (Khartoum) – The High Elections Committee in Darfur state says there were no security problems in the state during the counting of the ballots. The chairman of the High Elections Committee in Northern Darfur, Al-Sir Ahmed Al-Mek spoke to SRS on Saturday from Northern Darfur. Full story

Counting Delayed in Unity State As Pay Dispute Continues
17 April 2010 - (Bentiu) – Counting of votes in Unity state began on Friday with some delay due to complaints from elections officials about unpaid wages. Our reporter Clement Wani who is in Unity state sent us this report. Full story

SHEC Staff in Juba Refuse to Begin Count Until Salaries Arrive
16 April 2010 - (Juba) – Staff of State High Election Committee at Mayo Primary School polling centre in Juba have refused to count the ballots because their allowances have not been paid by NEC. The head of the polling station, Simon Saki, explained to SRS what happened: Full story

Failure to Pay Arrears Delays Count in Unity
16 April 2010 - (Bentiu) – An official from the State High Elections Committee in Unity state, Michael Mayar Mading, said that they have started counting the ballot papers. Speaking to SRS by telephone, Mayar Mading said party agents should remain calm until the winners are announced. Full story

Musician Attacked in Juba
16 April 2010 - (Juba) – A prominent southern Sudanese musician was the victim of an assassination attempt early on Friday morning. He was hit in the chest by a hand grenade thrown by an unknown assailant outside his house at Hai Jeberona in Juba. The grenade failed to detonate. Speaking to SRS in Juba, Kang John Jok, popularly known as Kang J.J., explains how the incident occurred. Full story

News from SRS - Sudan Radio Service - Thursday, 15 April 2010:

Polling Stations Close at 6pm Thursday 15 April
15 April 2010 - (Khartoum) – The National Elections Commission has signaled the end of the voting process. Voting officially ended on Thursday at 6pm. The deputy chairman of the NEC, Prof. Abdallah Ahmed Abdallah, made the announcement during a press conference on Wednesday in Khartoum. Full story

Insecurity, Logistics and Water Shortages Prevent Voting in Yirol East
15 April 2010 - (Juba) – Many of the voters in Yirol East county were unable to cast their ballots due to insecurity in the area. Our reporter Mageng Wade is in Yirol East and he sent this report. Full story

WES Vote Counting Begins Friday Amidst Complaints By Unpaid Election Officials
15 April 2010 - (Yambio) – The Chairman of the High Elections Committee in Western Equatoria state, Lawrence Suluvia, says counting of votes from all polling stations will start on Friday. Suluvia spoke to SRS in Yambio on Wednesday. Full story

Foreigner Traders in Juba Urge Sudanese to Remain Calm When Results Are Announced
15 April 2010 - (Juba) – Foreign traders in Juba are urging Sudanese not to react violently when the election results are announced. SRS spoke to some foreigner traders in Juba on Wednesday. Full story

Al-Bashir Still To Face ICC Charges Even if Re-elected
15 April 2010 - (Nairobi) – President al-Bashir will still face charges at the International Criminal Court even if he is re-elected. An ICC lawyer, Abd Al-Hadi Shalouf, told SRS on Wednesday by phone from The Hague that al-Bashir will still have to face charges of war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur. Full story

Vit Hassan's magical guide through Sudan

His colleague photographer who visited Vit in Sudan David Haberlah says:

"Vit Hassan is for sure the boldest and daring photographer in Sudan. His existance as a Czech-Sudanese Christian-Muslim is theoretically impossible but he is the man to defy any constraints.

Make sure you employ him on any expedition in Africa's biggest country, but before that ask him what "the sun is shining" is standing for ;-)"

Well what's holding you, go and see Vit's work and if you think you have some cents over to support this artist, do it 'cause he deserves it!

Photographs by Vit Hassan. Source of photo montage and text: The Challenge, February 04, 2006 - VIT'S MAGICAL GUIDE THROUGH SUDAN

Sudanese photographer Vit Hassan: Meroe is one of archaeology’s greatest mysteries

Photo: 'Dunes versus pyramids' by Sudanese photographer Vit Hassan. Taken in Meroe/Bajrawia, Northern Sudan. Uploaded to flickr by Vit on 22 June 2009.



Photo: 'Sleeping Shadows' on dunes around pyramids in Meroe/Bajrawia, Northern Sudan. Uploaded to flickr by Vit on 21 July 2006. This photo was taken 10 minutes earlier than the one above.

For an ancient city and civilization that flourished for nearly a thousand years, Meroe is one of archaeology’s greatest mysteries. It is unknown where the people of Meroe originated. An even greater mystery is where these Meroitic people are today and why these unconquerable ‘Masters of Africa’ left their ancient city, and seemingly vanished.

From the sixth century B.C. until the fourth century A.D., the city of Meroe lay on the banks of the Nile River, between present day southern Egypt and northern Sudan. The first outsider to mention Meroe specifically was Herodotus, a Greek, in approximately 430 B.C. Herodotus visited Africa, and although he never made it as far south as Meroe, he was told by the natives about the existence of a magnificent city to the south. Herodotus later wrote about his travels on the Nile River. The Persians, led by their ruler Cambyses, had once attempted to conquer Meroe.

Although few Europeans had ever even seen the city, the possibility of finding great riches there prompted Cambyses to send an army to take it over. His army turned back far before ever reaching Meroe due to the harshness of the African terrain and hostile locals. For the next 400 years, Meroe was only spoken of sparsely, mainly in stories. During this time, Meroe was thought by most to be an island on the Nile. This misperception may be justified by the fact that the city was surrounded on three sides by water.

After these few, faint accounts of Meroe, no additional information of the city was recorded and it was virtually forgotten about until recent times when European travelers and archaeologists explored this region. This is mainly due to its geographical remoteness. Now, all that remains of the once great city are hundreds of mounds of brick and stone, and many temple ruins and pyramids. A small town now stands next to the ancient site. While there are only speculative reasons for the fall of the city, one of the main theories is that a group of Axumites to the north, overran the city sometime around the second half of the 3rd century.

It is unknown how the Meroitic rulers were able to maintain control over, what at the time, was a massive population. We can only be certain that there was a working monarchy in order. Such a monarchy was able to establish 72 generations of rulers, composed of a mixture of kings and queens. The exact social organization of Meroe is also still unknown, but there was definite social stratification between nobles and commoners. Kings and royalty lived in palaces while ordinary people lived in straw and brick huts. Everything from the activities of these people’s daily lives, to historical events within the city are also mysteries.

The reason there is still so much uncertainty surrounding the Meroians, is mostly due to the fact that their language and writing are indecipherable. No one knows for sure what their language sounded like or what their Egyptian resembling hieroglyphic writing stands for. The pictures closely resemble those of ancient Egypt, but we have thus far been unable to decode the Meroitic scripts. A lot may be understood about the Meroans in the future when their language can be decoded..

Text courtesy of Vit Hassan. Click here to view Vit's photostream at flickr.

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Pyramids & temples - Nuri, Northern Sudan



Photo: 'Monuments' by Vit Hassan. Taken in Nuri, Northern Sudan. Uploaded to flickr by Vit on 18 June 2009 with the following text:

The pyramid field of Nuri contained 21 kings together with 52 queens and princesess.

The first to build his tomb at Nuri was king Taharqa. His pyramid had 51.75 m square and 40 or 50 m high. Taharqa subterranean chambers are the most elaborate of any Kushite tomb. The entrance was by an eastern stairway trench , north of the pyramid's central axis, reflecting the alignment of the original smaller pyramid.

Three steps led to a doorway, with a moulded frame, that opened to a tunnel, widened and heightened into an antechamber with a barrel-vaulted ceiling. Six massive pillars carved from the natural rock divide the burial chamber into two side aisles and a central nave, each with a barrel-vaulted ceiling. The entire chamber was surrounded by a moat-like corridor entered steps leading down from in front of the antechamber doorway.

After Taharqa 21 kings and 53 queens and princesess were buried at Nuri under pyramids of good masonry, using blocks of local red sandstone. The Nuri pyramids were generally much larger than those at el-Kurru, reaching heights of 20 to 30 m. The last king to be buried at Nuri died in about 308 BC.

See Vit Hassan's photo set: Pyramids & temples

Sudanese artist Rashid Diab

From The Korea Times April 17, 2009
Sudanese Painter Holds Exhibition in Korea
By Cathy Rose A. Garcia Staff Reporter

Many people only think of Sudan when its political problems hit the headlines. Koreans will have a chance to know more of Sudan's art and culture through the exhibition of accomplished Sudanese painter Rashid Diab.

Diab's exhibition "Time Lapse via Color, Shape and Form'' opens Monday at the Nuri Gallery, in the Korea Foundation Cultural Center, downtown Seoul. The Sudanese embassy said this is the first time a painter from Sudan is staging a solo exhibition in Seoul.

On display at the exhibition are 21 of Diab's works that offer a glimpse of Sudanese culture. His work is said to be a reflection of "a synthesis of his Sudanese heritage and an awareness of contemporary artistic developments in Europe.''

Made with rich colors, the art works are filled with traditional folk themes, Arabic calligraphy, animals, human figures and African motifs.

"The color and form may illustrate moments of sorrow, happiness, hope and despair, but the most important element is that of nostalgia for this universal world which is truly a reflection of my career. Thus, through my art I am most concerned with universality. Art for me is ultimately the connection between human beings. Art is what sustains cultures and indicates the material aspects of civilizations and as human beings we are responsible for this task,'' Diab said, in a statement.

Born in 1957, Diab was raised in Wad Medani, on the banks of the Blue Nile in Sudan. He graduated with honors from the Khartoum College of Fine Art. He moved to Madrid where he studied art at the Complutensa University, under a scholarship. Diab received his doctorate degree in painting from the university in 1991, and joined the faculty as an art teacher until 1999.

"Since I was a small child, I have loved to travel. I always wanted to be somewhere discovering new places, different types of life and other people. I constantly thought of how I could create a real and intimate relationship with distance and space. Why do things have specific dimensions and a certain shape at a certain time? These questions became an obsession with the only solution being to paint and continue paint," he said.

For the 52-year-old artist, painting is a necessity. "I know that the desire to paint is something within me part of my inner self, part of my subconscious. As time passed, this need to paint and draw transformed itself into something like a biological instinct, which has strengthened my relationship with the world around me,'' he said.

It was in Spain, when he started to appreciate his Sudanese heritage. He developed his own artistic style and philosophy, which he says deals with the "relationship of space and time.''

"Art for me is knowledge; in the sense that I think an artist must first be an avid reader and conscious of his contributions to the world of art. Every stroke, every line, whatever may be in the artist's mind, whether or not apparent in his work, transferred or not from his mind to his art, is a part of life," Diab said.

Diab, who has held solo exhibitions in Norway, India, Bahrain, Libya, Jordan, Lebanon, U.S. and Spain, has made an effort to give something back to his home country. In 2006, he established the Rashid Diab Arts Center in Khartoum, with the aim of developing and promoting Sudanese visual arts.

Diab's exhibition opens April 20 with a ceremony at 5 p.m. It runs through April 25. Visit www.kfcenter.or.kr

cathy@koreatimes.co.kr

A painting by Rashid Diab at the ongoing exhibition “Time Lapse via Color, Shape and Form.” Provided by the Sudanese Embassy. (Source: Joong Ang Daily 21 April 2009 by Park Sun-young: spark0320@joongang.co.kr)



Photo: Rashid Diab

Emmanuel Jal: 'Music is my weapon of choice'

As a child soldier, he learned how to kill. Now, thanks to a British aid worker, Emmanuel Jal is an internationally acclaimed musician. This is his remarkable story

Emmanuel Jal: 'Music is my weapon of choice'
By Roya Nikkhah 28 Feb 2009

Photo: Emmanuel Jal: 'I know how it feels to pull that trigger'. Photograph: GEOFF PUGH

For much of his childhood, Emmanuel Jal's best friend was his AK47. He looked up to the gun, literally, because it was taller than him. "When I hear my sisters talk about what happened to them, it makes me want to pick up that gun again and kill," he says. "Hatred and revenge are feelings that I constantly have to fight, but now I fight them through my music; that's my weapon of choice."

Today Jal, 29, is an internationally acclaimed musician whose songs preaching against war and violence have been lauded by Nelson Mandela and formed soundtracks to Hollywood films, but his success follows a less than stellar childhood.

At the age of eight, as a bloody civil war raged in his homeland of Sudan, Jal was taken from his family home by the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) rebel movement, and sent to Ethiopia where he was told he would go to "school".

But instead of learning his ABC, he found himself enrolled at an SPLA training camp for child soldiers, where he became one of Sudan's thousands of "lost boys", brainwashed, beaten and starved by the SPLA until he had learned how to throw a grenade and wield a machete.

Jal had seen his mother killed in the fighting, his village burned and his sisters and aunt raped by Arab militia men, so fighting for the SPLA against the Arab-dominated government seemed his only option for survival.

"I'd seen Arabs hit my mother so my desire, when I was taken to train, was to kill as many of them as possible. You are told when you have an AK47 that you are equal to someone really big, even if the gun is bigger than you. I wanted to be big and get revenge for my family and for my village."

Rolling his sleeves up to show me the scars on his arms from crawling for miles on stony ground in training drills, Jal recalls his training that replaced school. "If you stood up, they would kick you in the head, if you tried to crack a joke they would beat you, and they would wake us every hour in the night by blowing a whistle, to train us for night attacks. Even now, I still sleep with one eye open."

At 11, Jal was sent to attack his first town. He speaks slowly and carefully when I ask if he knows whether he killed people. "Yes, I participated in mob justice," he says, looking down at his hands. "I don't know how many, but I was told I killed people. When you're a kid, you don't aim and shoot like an adult, you just shoot like this," he says, closing his eyes and waving an imaginary gun above his head.

In 1993, after five years of fighting for the SPLA, Jal began to question his motivation for staying with the rebel movement. "The commanders used to tell me that this war was not about hatred and revenge, but about freedom," he says. "But I began to see I had the wrong reasons for fighting. When I had seen my mother beaten by Arabs, it sowed the seed of hatred in me and I wanted revenge, but I realised this was not a reason for fighting a war."

Knowing that desertion would mean certain death if he was discovered, Jal and 300 other lost boys took a chance, escaping from their camp in the night and setting off for eastern Sudan, where aid workers were based. A journey that should have taken one month to walk, took three, as they dodged army helicopters and minefields. One of Jal's friends had his leg blown off by a mine. Fewer than 20 survived the trek.

"We were so weak, we had no water and no food," says Jal, who watched some of his friends turn to cannibalism to survive. "That was the darkest part of my life," he continues, recalling how one night, he nearly succumbed to temptation. "I was so hungry, I was about to eat my own friend who was weak. I was holding his hand and thinking: 'I'm going to eat you tomorrow.' But I remembered my mother always telling me to be patient and wait for food because God would make it all right, and the next morning, a bird came which we shot and ate. That bird was a miracle bird. It saved my life."

When he finally reached the town of Waat in eastern Sudan, another miracle happened. He met Emma McCune, a British aid worker who noticed the 13-year-old Jal dragging his gun along the ground, too weak to carry it. McCune, who was working for Street Kids International, a Unicef-funded Canadian charity which built and renovated schools in southern Sudan, smuggled him on to an aid flight to Kenya. "She put on make-up and made herself pretty to distract the men on the plane, and then I crawled on board without them seeing."

Jal smiles for the first time during our interview when he talks of the woman he describes as his "guardian angel" who effectively adopted him, treating him as her own son when they reached Nairobi. "She put me in a good boarding school, paid for my fees, gave me her clothes. I had never had attention like that, I didn't understand what love means until then. She never shouted at me, she always corrected me softly. It is only now that she is gone that I appreciate the impact that she had on my life."

But six months after they settled in Nairobi, McCune was killed in a car crash. Homeless and wandering the slums of Nairobi, Jal sought shelter as an altar boy in a Catholic church. "I didn't do such a good job because my hands were always shaking," he says. "The priest knew I had been a soldier and would tell me: 'You're full of sin, that's why you can't serve properly.' When people know you've been a soldier, they judge you: you are a thief, a lost boy. But I liked the music and I went to concerts at church. I found myself writing music and it made me happy. So I started to perform it and kids liked it. I didn't write about my struggle, I wrote about peace."

Despite not having a record deal, in 2004 he recorded his first single, Gua, (which means "peace" in Nuer, a tribal language of southern Sudan), burning copies of the CDs himself when fans asked him. Word of mouth and radio play alone propelled the song to number one in Kenya for more than two months. "It made me really famous," he says, still sounding surprised, even though his three albums, Gua, Ceasefire and War Child, have gone on to sell hundreds of thousands of copies around the world.

Jal's songs have been used in the film Blood Diamond, starring Leonardo DiCaprio, and the television series ER. In 2005, he performed at the Live8: Africa Calling gig in Cornwall's Eden Project, a sister concert to the Hyde Park awareness-raising event that was prompted by accusations that the main event's line-up contained no world musicians. More recently, Jal became the first hip-hop artist to perform at the United Nations in New York, where he received three standing ovations. Last year, he played at the V Festival and at Nelson Mandela's 90th birthday concert in London, performing his song Emma, a tribute to McCune. Her life story, including her relationship with Jal, is being made into a film directed by British director Tony Scott (brother of Ridley), whose films include Top Gun and True Romance. There is even talk that Nicole Kidman has been lined up to play McCune.

Since 2005, Jal has made London his home because he "liked the vibe here". Sitting in his publisher's London office, with his plaited hair, parka jacket, baggy blue jeans and trendy green suede trainers, he explains how writing his autobiography has been cathartic.

"While I was writing the book, my chest was always tight and I had nosebleeds and nightmares," he says, recalling one episode in the book where he describes being whipped and imprisoned in an underground pit with no food or water, as punishment for visiting his aunt without the permission of an SPLA commander. "I would sweat, because the demons came back. But when the book was done, I felt better."

Jal, who describes his music as "gospel rap", has short shrift for many of the mainstream rap artists, such as 50 Cent, who have been criticised for glamorising violence.

"Most hip-hop artists are fake, all that gangster talk is not real. It's fiction, but children don't see that, they think everything is real and people like bad guys. Young people's minds are influenced so easily, their conscience is easily corrupted.

"How can someone who hasn't actually killed anyone think it's fun to kill? It's not. I know how it feels to pull that trigger. If I talked about being a bad guy, death and killing, I would have gone platinum.

"When I wrote my song 50 Cent, I wanted to tell him that he is a role model to young people so he needs to come up with a different style, he needs to tell children it is not cool to be a gangster and kill. Otherwise he is creating a genocidal society."

With the money he has made from his music, Jal sponsors 40 children in primary and secondary schools in Nairobi, and has founded Gua Africa, a charity that works to rehabilitate child soldiers and help communities in Sudan and Kenya overcome the effects of war and poverty. Gua's latest project is in Leer, the village in southern Sudan from where he was taken and where McCune is buried.

"We want to build a school in Leer called Emma's Academy. It will also have a vocational centre where we can train teachers. When I see kids back in Sudan who have been fighting, kids like I used to be, it haunts me. The only way I will feel better is if I build that school to give them a childhood."

'War Child: A Boy Soldier's Story' by Emmanuel Jal is published by Little, Brown on March 5. To order your copy for £11.99 + £1.25 p&p, call Telegraph Books (0844 871 1515) or go to books.telegraph.co.uk For information on Gua Africa, go to www.gua-africa.org

Former Sudanese child soldier Emmanuel Jal uses rap to deliver peace message

Before Darfur, civil war raged in Southern Sudan leaving two million people dead. Ten thousand children were forced to fight.

Emmanuel Jal was one of them.

Here is his incredible story.



Photo: Emmanuel Jal (by Christian Karim Chrobog)

Emmanuel is a spokesman for the Make Poverty History campaign, the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers and the Control Arms campaign.

He has set up the Gua Africa charity and is planning to build a school in Leer, his village in southern Sudan.

Through his music, Emmanuel Jal counts on the unity of the citizens to overcome ethnic and religious division and motivate the youth in Sudan.

His single “War Child,” mixes rap with soul to produce a world music vibe. He begins with telling his story through powerful lyrics; “I’m a war child / I believe I’ve survive for a reason / To tell my story, to touch lives.”

Central to the themes of his songs is the campaign for peace of opposing sides in Sudan and the clear message that children have no place in wars.



YouTube: Emmanuel Jal WARCHILD - official video - taken from the album WARCHILD (Courtesy of www.emmanueljalonline.net)

SUMMARY

Emmanuel Jal was born in war-torn Sudan, and while he doesn’t know exactly when, he believes it was in the early 1980s. He was taken from his family home in 1987 when he was six or seven years old, and sent to fight with the rebel army in Sudan’s bloody civil war. For nearly five years, he was a “child warrior,” put into battle carrying an AK-47 that was taller than he was.

By the time he was 13, he was a veteran of two civil wars and had seen hundreds of his fellow child soldiers reduced to taking unspeakable measures as they struggled to survive on the killing fields of Southern Sudan.

After a series of harrowing events, he was rescued by a British aid worker (Emma McCune) who smuggled him into Nairobi to raise him as her own.

To help ease the pain of what he had experienced, Emmanuel started singing. In 2005, he released his first album, Gua (”peace” in his native Nuer tongue), with the title track broadcast across Africa over the BBC and becoming a number one hit in Kenya. Gua also earned him a spot on Bob Geldof’s “Live 8″ concert in the UK.



Photo: Emmanuel Jal with Nelson Mandela

Jal performed at Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday celebrations in Hyde Park, London, June 08, he shared a stage with Alicia Keys, Annie Lennox, Damien Marley and Stephen Marley at the Black Ball in London in July 08 and also addressed delegates at the UN in New York in the same month. Jal has also performed with Razorlight, Supergrass, and Faithless in Europe.



Photo: Emmanuel Jal at the UN

In October 2008 Emmanuel toured the United States as part of the National Geographic All Roads Film Festival, in which he performed in New York, Washington D.C., Los Angeles and New Orleans. Jal also performed with Moby and Five for Fighting in the 2007 live concert film, The Concert To End Slavery (www.concerttoendslavery.com/trailer).



Photo: Emmanuel Jal outside the UN



Photo: Emmanual Jal at Harvard



Photo: Emmanuel Jal in Sudan

EMMANUEL JAL BIOGRAPHY

Emmanuel Jal (born c. 1980) is a Sudanese musician and former child soldier.

Childhood

Born in the village of Tonj in Southern Sudan, he was a little boy when the civil war broke out. Emmanuel’s father joined the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) and when he was about seven years old his mother was killed by soldiers loyal to the government. Emmanuel then decided to join the thousands of children traveling to Ethiopia who had been told that they could be educated there.

However, many of the children, Emmanuel included, were recruited by the SPLA and taken to military training camps in the bush in Ethiopia. The camp was disguised as a school in front of international aid agencies and UN representatives, but behind closed doors the children were training to fight. “I didn’t have a life as a child. In five years as a fighting boy, what was in my heart was to kill as many Muslims as possible.”

Emmanuel spent several years fighting with the SPLA in Ethiopia, until war broke out there too and the child soldiers were forced back into Sudan by the fighting and joined the SPLA's efforts to fight the government in the town of Juba. "Many kids there were so bitter, they wanted to know what happened to them. And we all wanted revenge."

When the fighting became unbearable Emmanuel and some other children decided to run away. They were on the move for three months, with many dying on the way, until they reached the town of Waat, which was the headquarter on a small group that had separated themselves from the main SPLA.

In Waat Emmanuel met Emma McCune, a British aid worker married to senior SPLA commandant Riek Machar. Emmanuel was only 11 years old then and McCune insisted he should not be a soldier. She adopted him and smuggled him to Kenya. There Emmanuel attended school in Nairobi. McCune died in a road accident a few months later, but her friends helped Emmanuel to continue his studies.

Music

While studying in Kenya, Emmanuel started singing to ease the pain of what he has experienced. He also became very active in the community, raising money for local street children and refugees. With the encouragement of those around him, Emmanuel became increasingly involved in music and formed several groups. His first single, "All We Need Is Jesus," was a hit in Kenya and received airplay in the UK.

Through his music, Emmanuel Jal counts on the unity of the citizens to overcome ethnic and religious division and motivate the youth in Sudan. After escaping to Kenya, he fell in love with hip hop in the way that it identified issues being faced by the neighborhood, which he was able to identify with in a unique manner. Although he lacked any music background or knowledge of its history, he felt that hip-hop could provide the easiest and most effective path to publicize across his story and lobby for political change.

He went on to produce his first album, Gua, a mix of rap in Arabic, English, Kiswahili, Dinka and Nuer. The symbolism of unity is expressed in the title, meaning both "good" in Nuer and "power" in (Sudanese) Arabic. His lyrics illustrate the desires of the Sudanese people to return to a peaceful, independent homeland. Although the only hip hop Jal had ever listened to was American, while he was in Kenya, the beat to “Gua” is not the usual American hip hop, but rather is strongly African. The title track, also called "Gua", was a number one hit in Kenya and featured on The Rough Guide To The Music Of Sudan and Help: A Day In The Life, bringing together some of Britain’s best known on a CD in aid of children in conflict zones (produced by War Child).

His next single, “War Child,” mixes rap with soul to produce a world music vibe. He begins with telling his story through powerful lyrics; “I’m a war child / I believe I’ve survive for a reason / To tell my story, to touch lives.” He continues the song with the narrative of his life and the pain inflicted upon him. “Written in English, Jal's second language, the new album [War-Child] may lack the poetic gymnastics of hip-hop's more fluent stars, but the plainness of the words - half-spoken, half-chanted over a mix of hip-hop and African-flavored choruses - keeps the focus on the story.” His powerful words spread the message of what he has been through, and what many are still living with now.

His unique brand of hip hop, layered with African beats, has led him to be considered one of the rising stars in the world music scene. Prior to Jal, rapping in Southern Sudan was primarily in the local language of Nuer and artists used sticks and clapping hands in place of instruments.

His second album, Ceasefire, was released in September 2005 and includes a re-recording of "Gua". This album is a collaboration with the well known Sudanese Muslim musician Abdel Gadir Salim and brings together opposing sides of the conflict, and different music traditions, to a common ground of the wish for peace in Sudan. The collaboration represents a vision for the future, as two Sudanese men, a Christian and a Muslim, unify and pave the way to overcome differences peacefully. Both musicians endured unimaginable adversity to become important figures, not only in music, but in the future of a country. They accentuate the differences between them and their musical styles, as a symbol of co-existence. The album preaches in four languages, encompasses every type of music in one, in an effort to transform the sound of hope into musical form. “Ceasefire” is not only the sound of two men collaborating on a musical project, but more symbolically, two halves of a divided nation learning to trust each other. This album's version of Gua was played on the American television series ER at the very end of the Season 12 episode "There Are No Angels Here" (aired on May 4, 2006).

Among other places he performed at the Live 8 Concert in Cornwall this summer. He was awarded a 2005 American Gospel Music Award for best international artist.

Emmanuel's third album, "Warchild", is released by Sonic360 Records in the UK on May 12th, 2008. Emmanuel, along with an all-star line-up, will perform songs at Nelson Mandela's 90th Birthday concert at London's Hyde Park on June 27th, 2008.

Activism

Jal, whose own childhood was robbed from him, aims to protect the childhood of others through music. "Music is powerful. It is the only thing that can speak into your mind, your heart and your soul without your permission." According to Jal, in times of war, starvation, hunger and injustice, the only way to survive the daily tragedy in Sudan is to allow the inner-soul to be uplifted through music, which is like soul food to heal pain. Through his heartfelt lyrics, he opens the world up to the corruption and greed of the Sudanese government; central to the themes of his songs is the campaign for peace of opposing sides in Sudan and the clear message that children have no place in wars.

He has also passionately criticized the current state of hip hop culture in the United States. He sees hip hop as a vehicle to communicate an authentic message, rather than a space to pursue street credibility. “As well as simply being great songs, people are really getting into the lyrics, really understanding his message, and he is a great role model.”

He has expressed concern about the message being sent by American hip-hop artists, saying “American hip hop is still entwined with gang culture, drugs, sexual violence, and greed. It’s a battleground.”

His song, “50 Cent,” speaks to the successful American rapper to change his violent messages, which have a destructive influence on children, as exemplified through his “Bulletproof” videogame. "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..."

Emmanuel is a spokesman for the Make Poverty History campaign, the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers and the Control Arms campaign. He has set up the Gua Africa charity and is planning to build a school in Leer, his village in southern Sudan.

A documentary about Emmanuel Jal called War Child was made in 2008 by C. Karim Chrobog. It made its international debut at the Berlin Film Festival and its North American debut at the Tribeca Film Festival, where it won the Cadillac Audience Award.

Source: Wikipedia


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Sudan Watch, February 15, 2009
WAR CHILD - THE BOOK: The true story of Sudanese child soldier Emmanuel Jal

Sudan Watch, February 15, 2009
WAR CHILD - THE FILM: Former Sudanese child soldier uses rap to deliver peace message

Sudan Watch, February 15, 2009
WAR CHILD - THE ALBUM & CD
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POSTSCRIPT FROM SUDAN WATCH EDITOR

Emmanuel Jal's story ought to be compulsory reading for all school children. If anyone reading this article is able to translate it into French, Arabic and/or Swahili, I would be most grateful to receive a copy for publishing at Sudan Watch, Uganda Watch, Congo Watch, along with several other sites that are part of this network of blogs.