Origin: Tong, Sudan
Decades: 1990's and 2000's
Genre-straddling African Christian gospel rapper Emmanuel Jal was born in the village of Tong (sometimes spelled Tony) in southern Sudan around 1980. His mother died when he was still a young child of seven or so, and Jal was forced into a Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) military training camp in Ethiopia, where he was trained to be a soldier, participating in military battles before he was even a teenager. Eventually he left Ethiopia and made the dangerous, grueling journey across Sudan to Waat, whic... Read More