Emma McCune
Emma McCune (born February 3, 1964 in the state of Assam , India , † November 24, 1993 in Nairobi , Kenya ) was a British development worker who was best known for her humanitarian aid in South Sudan .
Life
McCune was born in India in 1964, where her father worked as an engineer. After her family returned to the UK, she grew up in Yorkshire . During her training at Oxford Polytechnic , her interest in Africa was awakened by lectures on art history. A first trip to Khartoum followed , where she worked on a student project on refugee studies. She then lived in Australia for a year and then returned to Africa. McCune then began a master's degree at the School of Oriental and African Studies College at the University of London . At the same time she worked as a student confidante at the Sudanese Cultural Center. The personal problems and stories of the Sudanese students inspired them to found an information service which, during the second civil war in South Sudan , used the Sudan Update newsletter to regularly disseminate current information on the situation in the region.
In 1989 she returned to South Sudan, where she worked for the Canadian aid organization Street Kids International . McCune mainly fought against the recruitment of child soldiers and promoted the establishment of 110 small language schools.
During her work she got to know and love the Sudanese warlord Riek Machar , leader of a splinter group of the Sudanese People's Liberation Army . McCune and Machar married in June 1991. The wedding resulted in their being canceled by Street Kids International. In the same year McCune and Machar adopt the former child soldier and later musician Emmanuel Jal .
In November 1993, McCune, who was pregnant at the time, died in a car accident in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, at the age of 29. Thousands of South Sudanese attended her funeral in Riek Machar's hometown of Leer .
Aftermath
McCune's mother Maggie McCune published a book in 1999 with the title Till the Sun Grows Cold (German title Nefertiti - daughter of the sun , 2002) about the life of her daughter.
The American journalist Deborah Scroggins published the biography Emma's War: An aid worker, a warlord, radical Islam, and the politics of oil - a true story of love and death in Sudan in 2002 (German title Die Weiße Kriegerin. Ein Schicksal in Afrika . , 2006). The unauthorized biography also dealt critically with McCune. The book received mostly positive reviews and won The Ridenhour Book Prize in 2004 .
The film adaptation of the book by Tony Scott with Nicole Kidman in the lead role, planned since 2005 , met with massive opposition from the McCune family. McCune's brother Johnny McCune publicly refused a film version of his sister's story as long as it was based on what the family believed was “underhanded and sloppily researched” Scroggins biography. An exact start date for the filming is still unknown.
Emmanuel Jal released his debut album Warchild in 2008 , on which he made a musical memorial to his adoptive mother called Emma .
The documentary filmmaker Victoria Stevenson produced the film The Warlord's Wife in 2010 , which also deals with McCune's life and work in Sudan.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c d e f g Obituary: Emma McCune at independent.co.uk, accessed January 26, 2012
- ↑ a b c Beauty and misery at zeit.de, accessed on January 26, 2012
- ↑ Till the Sun Grows Cold ( Memento of the original from October 6, 2011 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at taylorholden.co.uk, accessed January 26, 2012
- ^ "Emma's War" by Deborah Scroggins at salon.com, accessed January 26, 2012
- ↑ Emmas Krieg at marabout.de, accessed on January 26, 2012
- ↑ Deborah Scroggins: The Inaugural Ridenhour Book Prize ( Memento of the original from October 17, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at ridenhour.org, accessed January 26, 2012
- ↑ a b Nicole enters movie maelstrom at theage.com.au, accessed January 26, 2012
- ^ Emmanuel Jal - Warchild at discogs.com, accessed January 26, 2012
- ↑ The Warlord's Wife ( Memento of the original from March 2, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. at film.britishcouncil.org, accessed January 26, 2012
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | McCune, Emma |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | British development worker |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 3rd February 1964 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Assam , India |
| DATE OF DEATH | November 24, 1993 |
| Place of death | Nairobi , Kenya |