From South Sudan to Southeast Alaska

Juneau and South Sudan don’t hold much in common.

More than 8,000 miles and vast cultural and political differences separate the two. The residents of South Sudan have been fighting in brutal civil wars for decades. The residents of Juneau are fighting about whether to build a road out of town.

But no gap is too great for the power of story to span, according to Emmanuel Jal, a former child soldier turned world-famous musician who spent the past week in Juneau.

“I think when it comes to telling stories, everyone can come together,” Jal told the Empire after performing at the Juneau Arts and Culture Center Wednesday night. “People can listen to you and find where they connect.”

Jal travels the world performing concerts and speaking to people in the hope of changing the world for the better. During his performance Wednesday, Jal wove song, dance and spoken-word poetry together to tell the story of his life and to impart on his audience the importance of peace.

He was born in a small village in what is now South Sudan sometime in the early 1980s; he doesn’t know exactly how old he is. When Jal was a child, his mother and many of his other family members were killed in the second Sudanese civil war.

While on his way to Ethiopia to pursue an education, Jal decided instead to join the Sudan People’s Liberation Army. He was a soldier no older than 10, driven by a desire to avenge his slain family members, he recounted Wednesday night.

Jal experienced some of the lowest moments of his life while fighting with the SPLA. He once tried to commit suicide, saved only when his gun jammed as he pulled the trigger. Later, in the throes of starvation, Jal contemplated cannibalizing remains of one of his fallen comrades.

“My senses changed; my fellow human beings smelled like food to me,” Jal told the roughly 100 people who had gathered in the JACC to listen to him.

Jal’s life took a turn for the better several years after he took up arms when he was given something that changed his life forever: opportunity. Emma McCune, a foreign aid worker from England, met a young Jal and smuggled him and several of his peers into Kenya, where he resumed the quest for an education that he abandoned years before. Through his studies, that Jal came to understand the importance of forgiving those who wronged him.

“You’ll never know the potential of a child or human being until you give them an opportunity,” Jal said.

As Jall explained, stories are powerful because each person listening will connect to them differently. In his view, though, the main takeaway from his performance Wednesday was to give abundantly and to forgive everybody.

“Forgive, give,” he said after the concert. “It’s as simple as that.”

Inspiring Juneau’s youth

Each of Jal’s performances is slightly different, tailored for his audience, according to Juneau resident Rich Moniak, who worked to bring Jal to Juneau.

During his brief stay in Alaska’s capital, Jal preformed three times. In addition to his Wednesday evening show, he performed at Juneau-Douglas High School and Thunder Mountain High School on Tuesday. Moniak, who watched all three performances, said that Jal’s speeches in the high schools were more about letting go of the fear of failure, a point he touched on only briefly Wednesday night.

Alejandro Rivera and Zeke Keller, both sophomores at Thunder Mountain High School, said the same. At one point during his performance at TMHS, Jal asked if any of the students wanted to rap with him. Letting go of his fear of failure, Keller performed alongside Jal.

“He told me to spit, so I spit,” Keller said. “It was probably the best experience I’ve ever had. I just felt the most brightness right then. This guy is a magnet. He inspired me so much.”

He so inspired Keller that he decided to watch the Wednesday night show, too. Keller brought Rivera, who didn’t get to see Jal during the high school performance.

Like Keller, Rivera was also moved by Jal’s performance, both literally and figuratively. At one point during the concert, Jal asked for volunteers from the audience to dance with him on stage. Keller and Rivera both joined in.

“He was so great,” Rivera said after the show. “I danced so hard I almost fell off the stage.” 

The journey to Juneau

Jal got the idea to visit Juneau about a year ago, when Moniak interviewed him on PeaceTalk, a monthly radio show Moniak hosts for KTOO. Moniak is also a columnist for the Empire.

Moniak had been playing Jal’s song “We Want Peace” for a couple months, so he wrote a letter to Jal, requesting an interview. He didn’t think he’d ever hear back from the internationally successful musician.

“I never expected him to do it,” Moniak said. “I send so many of those things out and I usually don’t get a response.”

Not only did Jal respond, he suggested coming to Juneau to speak at the high schools during the interview.

[My Turn by Rich Moniak: The angel inspired music of Emmanuel Jal]

Moniak took the idea to the Juneau chapter of Veterans for Peace, for which he serves as secretary, and the advocacy group decided to make it happen. Along with Juneau People for Peace and Justice, a nonprofit with a similar mission, Moniak and JVP were able to raise the $12,000 it took to host Jal.

“I’m a believer in the power of story, and I have been for a long time,” Moniak said. “The whole experience, for me — especially at the schools — was probably one of the highlights of my life.”

• Contact reporter Sam DeGrave at 523-2279 or sam.degrave@juneauempire.com.