Hip-hop ‘War Child’ Jal makes a date with Zim

The open air concert kicks off with the Zimbabwean artists such as mbira queen, Chiwoniso Maraire, “Comrade Fatso” and Chabvondoka, and “Outspoken” and The Essence, followed by Jal.
Emerging from a vicious background of child-soldiering in Southern Sudan, and after escaping to Kenya, Jal fell in love with hip-hop and felt it could provide the easiest and most effective vehicle to express his story. His music grew in Kenya, reached the word through the airwaves, and he is now an internationally renowned hip-hop artist, with a strong message of peace for the world. 
“Jal set the hip-hop bar higher,” wrote the Washington Post in 2008.
Jal, whose own childhood was robbed from him, aims to protect the childhood of others through music.
A documentary film about his life called War Child was made in 2008 by Karim Chrobog.  It made its international debut at the Berlin Film Festival and the Tribeca Film Festival in the United States, where it won the Cadillac Audience Award, and an autobiography under the same name was released in 2009. 
As part of Jal’s visit, War Child will be screened on tonight (6pm) at the Mannenberg Film Club.
Jal is spokesperson for the Make Poverty History campaign, the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers and the Control Arms campaign. In 2008, Jal also got involved in the musical movement of spreading awareness about current slavery and human trafficking by performing various songs for the rockumentary, Call+Response.
Jal is the second artist to be brought into the country after Kenyan, Eric Wainaina, last week as part of Pamberi Trust’s African Tour Circuit. Pamberi Trust is an arts development NGO.
African Tour Circuit is a project by Jo’burg-based African Synergy Trust and Pamberi Trust. It was established in 2006 to facilitate intra-African cultural exchange and arts collaboration through a “tour circuit” of arts venues, festivals and creative enterprises.
It links touring African artists with the “tour circuit” and practically implements tours, offering artists access to new audiences, and offering audiences experience of diverse African arts – in other words, bringing the music of Africa to Africans.
The Jal tour is supported by the British Council, Commonwealth Foundation, Prince Claus and MassMart.