Product Details
War Child: A Child Soldier's Story

War Child: A Child Soldier's Story
By Emmanuel Jal, Megan Lloyd Davies

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Product Description

In the mid-1980s, Emmanuel Jal was a seven year old Sudanese boy, living in a small village with his parents, aunts, uncles, and siblings. But as Sudan’s civil war moved closer—with the Islamic government seizing tribal lands for water, oil, and other resources—Jal’s family moved again and again, seeking peace. Then, on one terrible day, Jal was separated from his mother, and later learned she had been killed; his father Simon rose to become a powerful commander in the Christian Sudanese Liberation Army, fighting for the freedom of Sudan. Soon, Jal was conscripted into that army, one of 10,000 child soldiers, and fought through two separate civil wars over nearly a decade.
 
But, remarkably, Jal survived, and his life began to change when he was adopted by a British aid worker. He began the journey that would lead him to change his name and to music: recording and releasing his own album, which produced the number one hip-hop single in Kenya, and from there went on to perform with Moby, Bono, Peter Gabriel, and other international music stars.
 
Shocking, inspiring, and finally hopeful, War Child is a memoir by a unique young man, who is determined to tell his story and in so doing bring peace to his homeland.

Product Details

  • Amazon Sales Rank: #185159 in Books
  • Published on: 2009-02-03
  • Released on: 2009-02-03
  • Original language: English
  • Number of items: 1
  • Binding: Hardcover
  • 272 pages

Features

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist
As a young kid barely able to carry a gun, Jal, one of the Lost Boys of Sudan, witnessed and perpetrated unspeakable brutality in his country’s civil war, but he has not only found refuge in the U.S. but also become an international rap star for peace. His violent memories are graphically relayed in this powerful autobiography. At age 9, he smashed faces with machetes as his friend plunged a bayonet into an enemy’s stomach. What is amazing in this story is how Jal has been able to let go of his rage. His family gone, he was adopted by a British aid worker, who took him to Kenya, where he struggled in school. But eventually, inspired by Gandhi, King, and Mandela, he turned to music and the idea of rapping for peace (“no tribalism, nepotism, and racism in my motherland”). And his songs climbed the charts. With the intense personal story, Jal also brings in political issues not confronted in other books about the Sudanese War, including the crucial role of oil (“black gold”) in the ethnic conflict. --Hazel Rochman

Review

"Disturbing and visceral...Jal tells his story in spare, direct, and searing prose that leaves nothing to the imagination and offers a close-up view of the damage done to the psyches of children turned into warriors." --Library Journal
 
"Frank, unsparing...[A] searing portrait of a war-torn youth turned community advocate and role model."--Kirkus Reviews
 
"Powerful...[an] intense personal story." --Booklist
 
"There's no glamour here, no pitched battles, only unimaginable misery... Utterly grounded, specific and real... You'll come away from this book loving Emmanuel Jal."--Washington Post
 
"Fast-paced...stark...a provocative challenge." --The New York Times

About the Author

EMMANUEL JAL lives in London. His music has been featured in the movie Blood Diamond, the documentary God Grew Tired of Us, and in three episodes of ER. He is a spokesman for Amnesty International and Oxfam, and has done work for Save the Children, UNICEF, World Food Programme, Christian Aid, and other charities, and has established his own charitable foundation, Gua Africa, to help former Sudanese child soldiers. He has been featured in Time Magazine, USA Today, the Washington Post, Newsweek.com, and on NPR, CNN, Fox, MTV, and the BBC. A documentary about Jal’s life, also called War Child, premiered to acclaim at the February 2008 Berlin Film Festival and the April 2008 Tribeca Film Festival. His first U.S. album War Child was released in May 2008.

Customer Reviews

A "Lost Boy" is found...3
The Lost Boys of Sudan are getting more and more publicity. I certainly do not begrudge them of this! The world needs to know their story, and children should never have to choose between becoming targets or soldiers.

In War Child: A Child Soldier's Story, Emmanuel Jal tells his story. His family is uprooted in a Sudanese civil war. Most of his immediate family is killed. As an adult, Jal is reunited with his sister, and his father, a rebel leader, loses touch with Jal, with their eventual reunion a bittersweet affair since he seems to have abandoned Jal.

But the story here, in Jal's own words, is the transformation of a young boy into a "soldier". You never get a sense that Jal is a particularly good soldier. A lot of his shooting is "point and pull the trigger." He does kill, sometimes from afar, and sometimes very close. Miraculously, he survives, and the wife of a rebel leader, and then a foreign aid worker, coaches him back to a non-violent life. He becomes a popular hip-hop singer and rapper who praises Jesus.

Well, that's about it.

Now, I appreciated the rawness and choppiness of the writing style. It "sounded" like a young boy was narrating. And Jal's interpretation of events surrounding him in Sudan and Ethiopia had a naive, innocent flavor. Young boys have to be taught to hate. They certainly have to be taught to kill. This training he remembers most vividly. The battles are less clear... point and pull the trigger.

Unfortunately, Jal is committed to praising God for his rescue and for his salvation. The terrors inflicted on the people of Sudan, the rapes and tortures, the killing, the starvation, and the disease, really don't point me in the direction of a "well HE made it, so God is demonstrating his power and kindness." Just a thought.

This book will be compared with Ishmael Beah's A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. This latter book detailed Beah's adventures as a child soldier in Sierra Leone, as well as his rehabilitation. Both Beah and Jal experienced horror. Both Beah and Jal had some difficulties becoming reunited with "civilization." I thought Beah's book was more engaging, and less preachy.

I hope Jal continues making a positive difference, helping others in Africa and elsewhere uprooted from their homes and given a weapon. It's a story that needs to be told.

Disturbing and amazing5
I listened to Emmanuel Jal speak at TED Global and wanting to learn more sought out the book. This story, this life is absolutely incredible. The book takes you to the war zone from the child's perspective and it hurts to read because you realize how many all over the world have Emmanuel's story. It has inspired me to learn about Sudan, its people and to follow Emmanuel's work at GUA Africa.
The book is absolutely worth the read.

Stark reality...4
We hear about the wars and conflicts and suffering in Africa but as soon as you turn off the TV or close the magazine or put down the paper it goes away and it is easily forgotten. This book changed that for me. Since reading this book it has continued to come back to me. It seems that it is not so easy to forget once you know someone this has happened to. The atrocities are almost surreal, but I know they are real and I started to care about what was happening to this boy. While not a perfect book it made what has and is still happening very real for me.