Welcome aboard, everyone, as the next leg of our odyssey takes us to South Sudan. After spending time here we will head on to its northern neighbour Sudan. The two were a single country until 2011 when 98% of he population of what is now South Sudan voted for independence.
South Sudan is the world's youngest officially recognised independent country, becoming a teenager back in July this year. Its early years have been troublesome with civil war, famine and many other challenges. Let us hope things improve for its citizens as it approaches adulthood.
When preparing this post I did some research to try to identify artists from previous generations born in Juba or the other towns and cities in South Sudan, but failed dismally. So all today's tunes date from the last 15 years or so.
We'll start with Mary Boyoi, who spent part of the 1990s in refugee camps in Ethiopia as a result of the civil war in Sudan, before returning home in the 2000s to undertake relief work and become a campaigner for independence.In 2009 she released "Election Jai" ("the elections are coming") and actually stood as a candidate herself.
Mary is still recording and judging by some of the videos on her YouTube channel has reinvented herself as a bit of a saucepot in recent years. Whether this has helped or hindered her political career I don't know.
Next up is Emmanuel Jal, probably the best known of today's artists. Like many of those featured in earlier legs of the journey his life story is quite extraordinary. He was a child soldier from the age of eight before being adopted by a British aid worker and smuggled out of the country to Kenya where he was educated.
It was in Kenya that he began his recording career in 2004 and he has gone on to enjoy a degree of global success, helped in part by being the subject of a documentary called "War Child" in 2008. Today's selection comes from an EP released in 2010 and was included on a 2012 album called "Sudan Votes Music Hopes Remixes" in 2012, which is were I found it. I can also recommend "Ceasefire", his collaboration with Adbel Gadir Salim, a renowned oud player from the north.
Ajak Kwai's biography starts in the same way as Mary and Emmanuel's, being displaced because of the civil war. She spent eight years in Egypt where she started performing before emigrating to Australia around the turn of the century. I have chosen a track from her 2008 album "Come Together". You can find that and her 2021 EP "Red Sands" on Bandcamp.
Gordon Koang is another South Sudanese who emigrated to Australia, albeit more recently. He happened to be there in 2013 putting on some shows for the local expats when renewed conflict broke out back home and he applied for refugee status. His music is based on the traditional music of the Nuer people. This song comes from his 2020 album "Unity".
All of which brings us to John Frog. No relation to Kermit, Crazy or the members of Paul McCartney's chorus, he was given the nickname "aguek" (meaning frog) by his parents due to him being a breech birth baby. He burst onto the scene in 2018 with "Guondo Sakit", jumping up to the top of the charts across East Africa (you know, like what a frog would do). I can do no better than bring you the hit.
We finish, as is only right and proper, with our far-famed Mandatory African Reggae slot. Barnabus Samuel is a bit of a polymath, describing himself as an artist, songwriter, activist, author, humanitarian and entrepreneur. I can't vouch for his full range of skills but his music is pretty decent. You can find several of his records on Bandcamp. This track is on "Sambara" released in 2021.
"Election Jai" - Mary Boyoi
"Kuar" - Emmanual Jal
"Anazalana" - Ajak Kwai
"Kone Ke Ran" - Gordon Koang
"Guondo Sakit" - John Frog
"Suluta Wa Fata" - Barnabus Samuel
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