Well kids, I'm back. I apologize for how long I've been gone, but loads of trivial, absolutely meaningless things have happened in my life to keep me from blogging the way I would like to. Moving on, tonight, I feel I need to talk about a man named Emmanuel Jal. He is, in very short, my inspiration. Or at least, the man who woke me back up to the world of terrible shit going on everywhere all at once. Not to say that Jal's a depressing figure, as his life story would attest, he's truly a hero, and inspirational to say the least.
He was born in what has recently become South Sudan, and grew up as a young child as the second Sudanese Civil War broke out. He was, as is the case with a majority of his generation of south Sudanese, recruited to be a child soldier. That would be an understandably dark time for anyone, but thankfully, his life took a turn for the positive. Emma McCune, another name you may recognize, saved his life when he was around 11 years old. She helped pay for his schooling in the comparatively safe country of Kenya, and since then, as he wrote in his song "Emma" "Now I've got my education, I can't be stopped by no one." Since then, he's gone on to perform at some truly incredible shows, including Live 8, and Nelson Mandela's birthday concert, among other less amazing ones, like Forewell Hall at Fanshawe. But you're not here for a re-hashing of his autobiography, or his Wikipedia page.
This is a brief description of a man traveling the world, reliving and retelling his story night after night, to raise awareness for a country that's still in the midst of a genocide, as well as a truly horrible famine. Through his struggles, he has found inspiration to help save a generation of Sudanese from a similar fate. He lives with an apparently intermittent case of post-traumatic stress disorder from what he's been through, and in an interview I got to film for a friend of mine, he described how performing, and telling his story, drudges up old memories and has on many occasions kept him awake at night, at that point I was too enthralled to move, but I believe at that moment a hug would've been a great idea.
He doesn't need a constant reminder of what he's gone through, but what he's gone through is a constant reminder of why he needs to keep on doing his work, and why more of us need to wake up, step up, and join him in his fight. This is not a battle to be won single-handedly. Below you'll find a few links to his various relief projects, as well as a link to my personal Facebook page, where I'm hosting a video I shot of him performing back in March. Please enjoy, and have a great Friday everybody, be good to each other, and I'll be back Monday with some happier talk,
Kaz
"Emma" by Emmanuel Jal: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bYt8w64T3wA
Gua Africa, a charity Jal started, working in Africa: http://www.gua-africa.org/
And his latest project, the "We Want Peace" project, George Clooney was in on this too, there's a music video and a charity website:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_sV07DbJ9U&ob=av3e (video)
http://www.we-want-peace.com/ (campaign website)
Jal performing We Want Peace live at Fanshawe:
