godfrey lado

INITIATOR, BIG LADO ENTITY

THE WORD Music Background “The word” is my artist name. I am also known as “The man made in Juba”. Juba is a town in Sudan, now the capital of the autonomous Southern Sudan. My full name is Godfrey Mori Lado. Music was all a distant dream for me. I never thought I would become a musician nor have anything to do with music. But in retrospect, I should have, as some of my close relatives are musicians. My aunt Victoria Ole a nutritionist by profession is at the moment a part time musician, based in Juba."Salam ya Sudan" is her latest released CD/tape. She actually started her music at our house. Being one of my mother’s younger sisters, she came to help out as my nanny/babysitter when I was born. So, she was more like an older sister to me. That was what many people thought and some still do today. Besides my aunt, my uncle Samuel Black, a pastor based in Kampala is also a musician. Like my aunt, he was also around during my childhood days. He has released two CD’s, gospel music, so far in his music career. That he became a gospel singer and a pastor was totally a surprise to me for I remembered him as an excellent guitarist. Back then, he would strum his guitar and sing mostly Reggae tunes. Then there was my mother’s second sister who is married to a musician. The husband was professionally earning with his music as part of music formations such as the Afro Dance Group, in Juba. MADE IN JUBA Unlike most black kids who are born light-skinned then with time become black, I was born straight up black. Even my palms were dark at birth. At the young age of two months, I stopped suckling milk as if I knew I had to be prepared from infancy, for a tough life ahead. My father, Engineer Enosa Lado, R.I.P., was a constructor by profession. He was a man loved for his simplicity and generosity. And my beloved mother is Joy Kwaje. She is a tough woman. It is then logical where I inherited this toughness. Well, atleast what I like to think about myself. Before I was born, my parents had a son who passed away at an early age. I was the second born who ended up being some kind of first-born because my brother was already gone before I came into this world. So, I was named “Mori”, meaning approval for a substitute or a replacement. My parents were basically showing appreciation to the Almighty for giving them a second chance. It must have been hard losing the first born, given the fact that they were a newlywed(technically speaking) couple. After me came my sister Winnie Laye Lado, the first musician of my direct family. She has a charming voice and unlike me she plays an acoustic guitar and sings along. She wrote her own lyrics back then at a very young age. While I was out there playing Big Bro and not applying my skills or inner talents anywhere specific, little sister was already dropping rhymes in the form of poetry, something I later picked up and made mine. Truthfully saying, it was from my sister that I got this idea of getting into poetry. Thanks sister, I know you don`t know this, but still, I owe you this and the love of the whole world. The youngest of the three of us is Emmanuel Gala Lado. There is not much to say about him yet, but the three of us made Mrs. Joy Kwaje and Mr. Enosa Lado parents to the most wonderful children southern Sudan will ever get to know. Be proud dad, I know you are with us even though not physically. And stay proud mom. I also have two half-brothers who are far younger than me. They are David and Richard Lado, both sons of my father. The five of us form the "LADO-PACK". Due to war-related circumstances in Juba, around 1989 - 90, the family left for Khartoum. My parents saw the relocation necessary for us their kids to continue our education. I was twelve then. So, being 100% made in Juba, I started my new life in the North. At the beginning I had to learn the Arabic they speak there, get attuned to the oppressive heat and later the sandstorm or rain of dust they call “ghubar”, that all around new Islamic features I was not familiar with. In Sudan, down south, especially in Juba, we speak a different type of Arabic besides the many tribal languages. The Arabic that came to be known as “Juba Arabic” is so mixed up that an Arab would be confused and deny it as his own language. It did not take long for me to realize as a young boy, that we are a minority denied basic rights by the regime and the so-called real Sudanese. Discriminated against because of my ethnicity, then my belief, I felt like a foreigner in my own country. A Feeling shared throughout the country by fellow southern sudanese, as I grew older to understand. Moreover, I was culturally stripped of my identity as my country Sudan was considered an Arab nation, when in fact it has people of diverse backgrounds. Making the whole lot of Us into what we know as sudan today, characterised with civil wars, racial segregation and religious descriminition. And more of the sub catagories thereof. During my seven years in Khartoum, I was subjected to injustice, inequality, humiliation, and suchlike treatments that violates a person’s right. Someone like Malcom X would have a long list of words to describe all the violations of the rights of the southern Sudanese. Moreover, it was no longer strange to me to be treated or considered inferior, for it has been so with my people for the last 50 to 60 years. This has done nothing other than to drive me towards thinking like role models such as Bob Marley, Malcolm X, Martin Luther King Jr., Che Guevara, Steve Biko, Nelson Mandela, and all those icons concerned with change in a turbulent society. Skipping classes, smoking grass, politically motivated drinking, partying, aggressiveness towards northern Sudanese and other such irresponsible behavior, marked my teen years. Living in the slums, with no decent food, clothing or shelter, leave alone education, I felt helpless as most of the southern Sudanese. The resource for transportation to school was not sufficient. Even if you are able to get funds for transportation, you would have to pray that nobody`s pocket gets picked while you were in the bus as at the nearby police station, you the southern Sudanese was immediately seen as, and blamed as the criminal. You might get manhandled, leaving the police station with atleast a bleeding nose if not worse, after you were declared innocent. Those were the days when anyone with a name that did not sound Arabic or Muslim could not get a job. This was a clear message that if you did not practice Islam, you were not part of the system. Social tension was the result of all that discrimination, as a considerable number of the population happened to be non-Muslims. And to discover that this has been the story of southern Sudanese citizens since the colonization era and after independence, is reason enough for me to stand up for my people in whatever way or form possible. That is why I am for a New Sudan, a Sudan which accommodates all its citizens regardless of their ethnicity, color and religion; a Sudan that provides all its provinces with equal opportunities to prosper independently. That is why I identify myself with the SPLM (Sudan Peoples’ Liberation Movement) and its armed wing, the SPLA. With it the good and the bad in it…. The strategy I had in mind then was education. I dreamt of studying Law/International Law and somehow later stand up for my people. That is how everybody back home knew me, until I came to the Netherlands. My first four years in the country did not change my plans as far as studying is concerned. I still wanted to be a lawyer. However, one day I discovered there is a magician in me, and that was the making of music. To me, those two words almost mean the same, as music-making is like magic itself. Today when you go to Juba, you will discover that they, over there, call me “Hadjer Al Nesitu”, meaning, “The Forgotten Stone”. This is the name I chose to identify myself and those like me in the world. It originated from the Bible, the book of Luke, chapter20, verse 17; and so began the FORGOTTEN STONES BAND. THE FORGOTTEN STONES Politicians/rulers/leaders seem to hold the illusion or have the tendency to believe they are capable of maintaining the peace and integrity of the people of a nation so much that at times they forget some areas/opinions are not being reached/heard. In such times, chaos is bound to reign, as the victims of the situation will not always stay victimized. They will, sooner or later, take justice into their own hands, and try to find a solution to their problems. It is also a time for those deprived of all types of needs to speak up, because since the politicians are busy painting that beautifull picture we the people don`t see, we will have to make our problems known, by all and any means necessary for the course, I chose Music. As far as southern Sudan is concerned, who can describe the problems of the society such as the inflicted poverty better than the victim of it ? This is where the Forgotten Stones steps in. I am documenting the literature of a people lost in the Irony of wars and the agony of being unknown, or can I say ignored. So I will be loud in singing songs that inform people of the situation in the society whereever I am. If you ve never known us listen to us and get to know who the Forgotten Stones Really are… Furthermore, one fundamental figure of the Forgotten Stones is called "The head Corner Stone". Being a leader and mentor to me in my musical aspirations, I call him "The Godfather". The two of us form the root of the Forgotten Stones Philosophy. In this regard, he is The Godfather and I am The Word. These are the words of a true Stone, by The. WORD, aka Godfrey Mori Lado, Lead Singer/Songwriter/Poet of the FORGOTTEN STONES...