Schools

'War Child' Preaches Peace in West Hartford

Emmanuel Jal, a former child soldier in South Sudan, spoke to more than 400 Conard and Hall high school students Friday.

By Ted Glanzer

The child of war came to West Hartford on Friday preaching and singing for peace.

Emmanuel Jal, of the South Sudan, who was recruited to be a child soldier in the Sudan People's Liberation Army when he was just 7 years old, told his harrowing story of survival to several hundred Conard and Hall students in the Hall High auditorium.

In equal measure activist, musician, poet and, perhaps most surprising, comedian, Jal told the tale of how he was one of 16 survivors out of 300 children who escaped the brutal civil war in the Sudan in the 1990s.

Most of Jal's family, including his mother, had been wiped out in the religious and political conflict that claimed 2.5 million lives.

"The first time I experienced war, I thought the world was ending. Bombs were falling and the ground was shaking," he said. "All of my aunties died."

At first, young  Jal wanted revenge.

Eventually, when Jal was 11, he escaped with 300 other children from his fellow Sudanese rebels.

At one point, Jal, now 33, said that a journey that was supposed to take one month and wound up taking three led him to consider resorting to cannibalism.

He said in a poem about that experience, "my dreams are like torments. ... Voices in my brain of my friends who were slain."

Jal wound up in a refugee camp and found salvation through foreign aid worker Emma McCune, who took Jal to Kenya to be educated.

He eventually penned War Child, which details his experiences, and started recording music calling for peace.

His work has drawn the attention of President Jimmy Carter, Kofi Annan, Richard Branson, George Clooney and Alicia Keys.

"My prayer is for our leaders to serve people rather than be served," Jal told the students on Friday.

The students, a bit impassive at first, were by the end clearly moved, cheering and dancing along with Jal, flashing peace signs.

"It was incredible," said Hall senior Sara Lebow, who said she was brought to tears at one point. "It's such a contrast to how we live in West Hartford. I think I'm stressed out getting into college. You hear stories like his on YouTube or you read about them in magazines or books. It was incredible to hear it in person."

Fellow Hall student Liz Margolis — nicknamed "elephant ears" by Jal because of her keen hearing during his presentation — agreed.

"It was inspiring," she said, adding that she was going to take up Jal's challenge to give up something for 30 days and use the proceeds to donate to a charity of her choice.

Jal concluded the day by fielding questions from Liz Devine's Global Problem Solving class at Hall.

One of the more heartbreaking answers Jal had was in response to the question of what would have happened to him if he were a girl.

Jal said he likely would have been raped or forced into marriage.

Jal appeared at Hall courtesy of the hard work of Devine and Dr. Tracey Wilson, Devine's counterpart at Conard. Devine challenged the students to find a way to bring peace into the world and to make the community a better place.

"What will you do for peace?" Devine asked the students.

For more information on Jal, visit www.we-want-peace.com.


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