Former child soldier tells Juneau high schoolers to work for peace

Emmanauel Jal talks about his transition from child soldier in Sudan to peace activist and hip hop artist during an interview on Tuesday.
Emmanuel Jal talks about his transition from child soldier in Sudan to peace activist and hip-hop artist during an interview on Tuesday, Oct. 25, in Juneau. (Photo by Rashah McChesney/Alaska’s Energy Desk)

Teenagers this week in Juneau are worried about Halloween costumes, grades and the other daily dramas of high school. But when Emmanuel Jal was even younger — he isn’t sure how old he is — he was starving and fighting in a civil war in Sudan as a child soldier.

A lot of the good things in Jal’s life he said happened by accident. He has a business centered on food he “created” to change his diet because doctors told him he was showing symptoms of diabetes.

“And the food that I used and created is what I packaged and put in Whole Foods in Canada,” Jal said.

Jal said he also fell into music by accident.

“I was just doing music for fun. It was a place (where) I was able to see heaven again. It was a place where I was able to become a child again,” he said. “So I just did it for fun and it turned out to create a platform.”

Jal is from South Sudan. He visited Juneau this week to encourage Juneau-Douglas High School and Thunder Mountain High School students to fight for peace.

He travels around the country speaking about the horrors he experienced during Sudan’s most recent civil war.

“During that time my country was at war and that war really took all my family. All my aunties died during the war, all my uncles except two. My mom too was claimed by that war,” Jal said.

He said his father sent him to Ethiopia and he had to walk hundreds of miles to get there.

He said a lot of people died on the trip and when he reached Ethiopia he was eventually trained to be a child soldier.

The story he shared with the high school students was the lowest point in his life – the time he was starving and was tempted to eat his friend.

“That night I went through a fight with my mind,” he said. “Part of my mind tell me, ‘Eat your friend.’ Part of my mind tell me, ‘If you’re gonna eat your friend, it’s going to haunt you for the rest of your life.’”

He didn’t. He got a bird to eat.

Emmanuel Jal performing at Juneau-Douglas High School on Tuesday.
Emmanuel Jal performs at Juneau-Douglas High School on Tuesday. (Video still courtesy 360 North)

Jal said it can be hard to know how much of his story to share with people because sometimes he doesn’t want to remember all of the details.

“So when I go to an audience, (I’m) kind of prepared mentally. And then I end the whole thing with a dance, music. Boom, high energy, high vibration – I’m not haunted,” he said. “Before, I used to tell the story where there was no music and it used to give me (a) terrible time.”

Jal believes his story can inspire Juneau’s high school students to try to learn how they can work to make the world better.

“Basically I’m just contributing to the greater calling,” he said.

“(I’m) just saying, this is where I came from. This is where I am now. And you can do the same. And then they say, ‘Oh yeah. Let me take a part in making this world better.’”

Jal said sometimes when people don’t know others are suffering, they won’t do anything. But he said once they know, they will act.

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