ceasefire--emmanuel jal

I just purchased the album "Ceasefire" by Emmanuel Jal and Abdel Gadir Salim. I am just LOVIN' it!!





emmanuel jal was a child soldier in Sudan. now he is a musician and uses his music as a way to raise awareness about the plight of child soldiers. Emmanuel Jal is a Christian. Abdel Gadir Salim is a Muslim and an oud playing legend in Sudan. In this musical collaboration they send the peoples of the world a powerful message of peace and reconciliation across this increasingly contentious divide as well as make musical magic that not only unites cultures and beliefs but also unites tradition and modernity.

From a review on pitchforkmedia.com

"Jal and Salim do not mix their music thoroughly on most of Ceasefire, instead allowing Salim's elegant desert blues-- played on oud, accordion, saxophone, wooden drums, and bass-- to rub up against the sequenced beats and funky flow of Jal, who raps in Nuer, Arabic, English, Dinka, and Kiswahili-- sometimes bouncing between four different languages in the space of one verse.
It works surprisingly well, and not just because the two musicians appear on some of each other's tracks. What really is striking about it is how effortlessly Salim's organic, traditional percussion and Egyptian-influenced singing style fits alongside Jal's more 21st century sound. Unsurprisingly, the lyrics of both men reflect on the hope for lasting peace in their country (a peace already encroached upon by the Darfur violence). Jal opens "Aiwa" (Arabic for "yes") with a verse in Nuer that translates to "I would love to sing in all the people's languages/ With this chance that I have I want to express/ The whole of my heart to the whole of the world." The chorus trades Nuer lines with Arabic affirmations, something that would have been next to impossible only a year ago."

here are some images of emmanuel from Globe for Darfur

and here is a video of emmanuel performing one of his top songs, Gua, at the 2006 Festival of World Cultures in Ireland.

another prominent former child soldier who is working hard to raise awareness about this issue and who has captured the public imagination is

ishmael beah.

I assigned his powerful, masterfully written and moving autobiography of his experiences as a child soldier in sierra leone, "a long way gone," in one of my classes this past semester.