The former child soldier cracking ribs in Juba

By Winnie Cirino

Twenty-six-year-old Kuech Deng Atem, commonly known by his stage name as Wokil Jeesh Commando, uses his personal experiences to tell jokes about everyday life in South Sudan.

Through his comedic performances, Kuech Deng Atem is putting smiles on the faces of South Sudanese who have been traumatized by the country’s years of wars. He is also educating soldiers on how to associate with civilians.

Atem says many soldiers in South Sudan harass civilians to extort money from them, a mindset he wants to change through comedy.

Atem, who joined the military when he was 10 years, says he and other children were trained in Aweil and Mapel and later joined the fighting in Heglig and Abyei in 2012. Child soldiers like him were mainly tasked to take care of wounded soldiers and carry ammunition, he says.

In 2008, his mother followed him to Mapel, picked him up, and brought him to Juba where he was finally taken back to school. That’s where he started performing comedy.

“At school, I would tell my classmates the stories that used to happen in the barracks, how we used to live and then they would laugh, and teachers would come in some times and get me and be like ‘tell me the story I would tell them, and they would laugh then one of the teachers told me that, ‘you could do this in the assembly and make people laugh, so I started doing this in the assembly and people would laugh every morning that’s when I discovered that I can do stand-up comedy,” Atem narrates to The Insider.

The 26-year-old joined South Sudan Film Limited in 2013 where he perfected his skills and started performing comedy skits on state-run television-SSBC. Later, he joined ‘Kilukilu Ana’ a local stand-up comedy show performed every Thursday at Nyakuron Cultural Center.

Most of Atem’s comedy is related to soldiers because he is familiar with them. But he also wants to educate the public and the soldiers on how to coexist.

“There are things that some soldiers do that are sometimes against the societies, things that are negative sometimes, for example, they stop you at night, they try to harass you, ask you for logbook, and when you have everything, they start looking for problems on how to get money from you,” Mr. Atem says referring to a joint force of the military, police and national security manning checkpoints.

They were first deployed in 2017 amidst heightened insecurity in the country, but have since remained to carry on work largely done by traffic police.

Apart from putting smiles on the faces of many South Sudanese who have gone through a lot during wars and economic meltdown, Atem has the ambition to become an international comedian.

“My main aim is to become international, not just in South Sudan but also in Africa generally, travel from one country to another try to educate Africans and also try to help in trauma healing through my jokes and also solve other problems through jokes.

“You know comedy plays a great role in the society in peacebuilding, bringing people together. I want to become an international comedian and try to put smiles on people’s faces,” he reveals.

So far, the 26-year-old is proud of his journey, winning four awards.

Atem who is now in his final year at the University studying Information Technology says if his mother had not taken him out of the army, he could be killing people, and looking for where there is a war to fight.

He urges the government to ensure children are not recruited in the army but rather left to gain education for them to make good decisions for the country’s development.