What music does to me, it helps me balance my inner pressure so that I can deal with the forces outside that are trying to pressure me.
Music – it’s the only thing that can enter your system, your mind, your heart, without your permission.
In Africa, music is for everything, Music was originally used for community. That was what music was for.
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.
I was shocked when I came to New Orleans. I never knew there were beggars on the streets here. I didn’t know that there were poor people. I thought this was Heaven, you know?
When I first went to school, I was fighting all the time. The soldier mentality was still in me. I kept getting expelled. I found it hard to take instructions from anyone who wasn’t a military commander.
In times of war, starvation, hunger and injustice, such tragedy can only be put aside if you allow yourself to be uplifted through music, film and dance.
As a child, I didn’t know what they mean by ‘to die.’ So I grew up in a place where people used to die all the time, but a child is not allowed to see a dead body. When you ask, ‘Where is so-and so?’ you’re told, ‘He’s gone to another world where we all go to live in the future.’
What I always wanted to do when I was a kid was to speak out and help people which I continue to do afterwards.