Emmanuel Jal: from child soldier to rap artist

Talk Friday 9th October, 2009

From child soldier to hip hop artist invited to perform at Nelson Mandela’s 80th birthday celebrations, Emmanuel Jal‘s story is a remarkable one of transformed life.
Born in Sudan in the early 1980s, Emmanuel Jal spent six years fighting with the rebel forces in his country’s civil war before he was rescued in his early teens by British aid worker, Emma McCune and smuggled to Nairobi.
In his book Warchild: A Boy Soldier’s Story, Emmanuel Jal describes how music helped him deal with the pain of his experiences from the time aged around seven years that he was separated from his family and forced to fight with rebel forces.
Emmanuel Jal has continued to use music to speak out on injustice and against the terror that many continue to encounter in their lives. He will be at the Frontline Club to perform and to talk about his life and continued fight to help children in Sudan.



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