In 2014, Foreign Policy named South Sudanese musician Silver X as one of 100 leading Global Thinkers. He grew up a refugee in Uganda and became famous after singing for peace and a unified, independent South Sudan. On Thursday, by coincidence, we landed at the Juba airport at the same time as him. All of us noticed him for his style: watches hanging off his wrists, big white boots, skinny dreadlocks under a flat brim hat. Turns out he’s friends with our fixer (a music journalist), and today South African photographer Alexia Webster and I hung out at his extremely humble compound of thatched and tin roofed huts (where he parks his yellow convertible). We sat around on lawn chairs talking about his childhood and musical breakthrough, and how he felt leaving home for Uganda and now coming back as an adult. “Damn,” he said. “I feel awesome. I feel good.”

-Siobhan O’Grady