Emmanuel Jal winds up Africa Gathering

Africa Gathering came to an emotional end for three reasons:

1. Emmanuel Jal – the now musician (Peter Gabriel compares him to the young Bob Marley) – but once Child Soldier told us about bits of his young life. Horrendous to a level you would not believe. That’s all I’m saying. You’ll have to read the book. >>hint
2. The £5,000 raised through Africa Gathering ticket sales was presented to Banana Man (aka Kevin Allen). Again an amazing story. And again you’ll have to read the book. >>hint
3. Then Emmanuel sang ‘Emma‘ [What would I be  if Emma never rescued me?]. Which was brilliant, especially when you know who Emma was. Read the book! Best to listen to it here rather that play the above video caught on my iPhone.

Emmanuel came over to the giant AidPod (in ‘interested person’ mode rather than celebrity mode) and we talked about ColaLife. Then he came back again to talk some more. A lyric of his goes: ‘Babies dying from curable disease’. We could be talking again.

After all of this I thought I’d try and get the giant AidPod back to Rugby on Virgin Trains and  I did it by deciding it was a bicycle box for the purposes of the trip! Thank you Virgin Trains for being understanding.