Emmanuel Jal says got into music because it brought him peace after the trauma of his childhood in war-torn South Sudan.
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Today, Jal is a recording artist, actor, entrepreneur and peace activist, but between 1983 and 2005, Sudan was ravaged by civil war and Jal was a child soldier conscripted to the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), Christian insurgents fighting against the country's military regime imposing "sharia," or Islamic religious law, on the nation.
"My desire was to kill as many Muslims and Arabs as possible," Jal says. He says that anger was born from a hatred that started when he was very young.
Life in Sudan during the civil war was violent and hard. Jal watched his aunt being raped in front of him when he was 5 years old. "Walking around dead bodies, seeing the soul of your village roped away from you," says Jal. "All my aunties died during the war. All my uncles except two."
Growing up in Nairobi, Jal found music in church and while hanging out with friends, Campbell-Golding says.
"Life was difficult then, you know, but music became the place I was able to see heaven again. So through music I was able to dance, through music I was able to become a child again. And I did not know that I was going to be a recording artist. I was just doing it for fun because it gave me — it kept me busy," Jal told NPR.
In particular, Jal was influenced by P. Diddy, Sean Combs.
"The person actually trigger me rapping was somebody called 'P. Diddy,' 'Puff Daddy.' So I heard him, he sung the song 'Jesus, my best friend.' And I said, 'Oh, gangsters sing about God too?' And I said, 'Ok.'" Jal tells CNBC Make It. "And what interests me about American hip hop is the stories they tell."
Jal learned to be a professional musician via trial and error and asking questions.
In Kenya, he went to a music studio to record songs. "Well the first time I entered a studio, I was kicked out," Jal tells CNBC Make It. He just wasn't good enough. "So I just ask questions and look around — 'How do they do it?' ... I watch American hip hop — how they rap, I say, 'Oh, they just talking.' But I didn't know there is art to talking in the beat. So I go to studio, 'Yo!' I do my thing. I was kicked out."
Gradually, Jal improved. "It took me a while to develop my style. I would say this also used to listen to Lost Boyz and this Tupac [Shakur] that you know I was introduced to my other people and I just kept on loving the stories and there's Biggie [Smalls, aka Christopher Wallace] and then there's Run-DMC. And you could go the old school guys."
Eventually he even succeeded. Jal released a couple of his own tracks and caught the attention of British musician and humanitarian Peter Gabriel, who brought Jal to the United Kingdom to perform at a Live 8 Africa Calling concert in 2005, Campbell-Golding says. The BBC took notice.
"Gua" became his first hit, Campbell-Golding says. It is a dream of peace in his home country. The chorus, translated into English, is as follows: "I will be so happy, When there's peace in Sudan, When people come back to Sudan, My heart will be filled with joy, When people can go back home, When people will be able to support themselves in their homeland."
The popularity of "Gua" got recognition in Kenya and he went on to record an album, Ceasefire, in 2005 with Abdel Gadir Salim from the North of Sudan. The record received critical acclaim.
Today, life looks radically different for Jal than it did when he was a child: He lives in Toronto, Canada, and has released another four albums (Warchild in 2008, See Me Mama in 2012, The Key in 2014 and Naath in 2018).
"I feel like I'm dreaming where I am now," Jal told NPR in 2015.
More universally, though, Jal says his mission is to help others by sharing his own story.
"I'm a recording artist, but a storyteller — so I share my experiences for social emotional learning to create conscious global awakening. That is through the arts, business and philanthropy," Jal tells CNBC Make It.
He has told his own story in multiple ways. In 2008, "War Child," a documentary about Jal, was released. He gave a TED Talk in 2009. He also published his autobiography in 2009. Jal even co-starred with Reese Witherspoon in 2014's "The Good Lie," a movie about four refugees from Sudan who win a lottery to move to the United States.
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How this ex Sudanese child soldier was inspired by P. Diddy to become a successful hip-hop artist | CNBC Make It.
