Emmanuel Jal Quotes

The worst people on earth are not only those who commit evil, but those who stand by and turn a blind eye

Music is powerful. It is the only thing that can speak into your mind, your heart and your soul without your permission.

Any child soldier has to go through a lot of love, care and understanding to become normal.

I'm still a soldier, fighting with my pen and paper for peace till the day I cease.

A cold heart is my protection mechanism. I don't really feel anything for anyone.

I am proof that one person can rise above any challenge, and if I can, then so will others if they are given the chance.

I still have nightmares of dead comrades, a long time ago, talking to me. 'Emmanuel, don't forget about us, don't give up, keep telling our story.'

In Africa, music is for everything, Music was originally used for community. That was what music was for.

I lost my childhood. I didn't play football or video games. Or have birthdays or the love of a family.

If I sleep for more than half an hour, I get horrible dreams in which I'm firing a gun and helicopters are coming down.

Peace may be negotiated by politicians, but it is something written in hearts and minds not on pieces of paper

Music is actually where I see heaven.

Knife crime and gun crime is poverty-driven, and poverty leads to insecurity.

I don't know anywhere where the people are hungrier for education than South Sudan.

When people know you've been a soldier, they judge you: you are a thief, a lost boy.

I grew up in poverty. For 25 years I was fed on aid.

To tell my story, to touch lives.

If you really kill, you don't want to talk about it.

Only a coward will use a gun to protect and get respect for themselves.

Education is the only solution for peace.

I don't take modern hip-hop as real. It's entertaining, it's fake, like James Bond.

A lot of child soldiers lose their minds.

For many Sudanese, it's for strength they choose to be Christian rather than Muslim. My mum was a Muslim but she became a Christian later.

Sometimes words are not needed, and the simplicity of expressing yourself through an art form is one of the best ways of communication.

When I was in south Sudan, people used to rap in my village. But the rapping was more in the mother tongue, Nuer.

In Africa, you know, if you're poor, at least you can go to the forest and share some mangoes with the gorillas and monkey.

I'm rapping in English but in an African way. I'm not trying to sound like an American.

I'm constantly seen as a 'foreigner,' and I need my passport to prove my identity, to keep moving and to carry on my work.

War destroys people's souls. Most people focus on physical injuries, but the invisible injuries can take a lifetime to heal and affects the lives of generations to come.