A new book by a former-child soldier in the Sudan sheds light on the horror that is occuring there.
Warchild: A boy soldier’s story
By Emmanuel Jal
Published by Abacus
Available from The Record Bookshop for $35.00 + p & h
Reviewed by Mark Reidy
Emmanuel Jal is living testimony to the adage that innocence is the first casualty of war, but he too is a guardian of hope, a witness to the reality that life can rise again from even the most blackest of ashes.
From the age of seven when he was separated from his family during the Sudanese civil war in the mid-1980, he was exposed to the brutality, inhumanity and hatred that are manifested in the darkness of battle.
For the first 18 chapters of this autobiographical account, Jal takes the reader into the frontline of a war that ravaged his mind and soul.
He does not attempt to justify the atrocities that he perpetrated or witnessed, but realistically portrays the psychological, emotional and spiritual unravelling that is inflicted upon a boy who is thrust into situations that would petrify even grown men.
I read much of this book with a dropped jaw, desperately wanting to discover that this was a story of fiction; not wanting to believe that children in our modern world could ever be exposed to such unimaginable horror.
Yet I was mesmerised by the brutal reality that unfolded through the eyes of a child who was emotionally decaying with each page.
But what kept me most encapsulated was the anticipation of discovering how a young man so psychologically damaged could emerge to become one of Africa’s top musicians and mix with the likes of Bob Geldolf, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Nelson Mandela.
With God as his strength, music as his vehicle and the love of strangers that became his bridge back to sanity, Emmanuel Jal’s story is one of extraordinary triumph over tragedy.
His tough and tortured journey from emotionally severed child soldier to international ambassador for children in war-torn countries is one as mesmerising as it is inspiring.