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SALT LAKE CITY — Emmanuel Jal was 7 years old when civil war broke out in Sudan in the early 80s. He lost most of his family members in the war, and joined other children to walk across the Sudanese desert to refugee camps in Ethiopia. Along the way, many of them, including Jal, were forced to join militia forces.
Jal spent four years as a child soldier, trained to do horrendous things. Now, he calls himself an accidental musician.
“The hardships seeing 7-year-old bodies dead, and getting used to people dying. Starvation,” Jal said. “Music is not only a therapy or a painkiller of mine. Now I use it to communicate a bigger picture out and also to mobilize people.”
A British aid worker smuggled him out of that life, and now he travels the world, using music — hip-hop and rap — to tell his life story. The former child soldier is now a soldier for peace. Jal has performed with artists such as Alicia Keyes and Peter Gabriel, and is well-known in the music world.
“None of my colleagues have made their way to the top because they didn’t get a way out. Music was the place I could see heaven again,” Jal said. “Music is the place I could be a child again.”
Jal appeared in Utah on Friday night as part of a Global Community Summit. He shared his story with Rowland Hall’s Larimer Center, sharing a message to get involved with global events because there are people with stories like his who need help.
“Our world is dark and each one of us can be the light,” Jal said. “If every person does something small in each area, we will create a beam of light that will shine over darkness.”
Jal said he’s on the road just about every day of the year sharing his message. Friday morning, he talked to city and county leaders about ways Utahns can help bring peace into the world.
“To say ‘wow, he survived and he did something to make the world a better place,' I can do that too,” said Felecia Maxfield-Barrett, a co-organizer of the Global Community Summit.
The Global Community Summit will wrap up Saturday with a concert at the Viridian Event Center in West Jordan.
