About Emmanuel Jal Jak
Bio
Emmanuel Jal has won worldwide acclaim for his unique style of hip hop with its message of peace and reconciliation born out of his experiences as a child soldier in Sudan. His music can be heard alongside Coldplay, Gorillaz, and Radiohead on the fundraising ‘Warchild - Help a Day in the Life’ album, as well as in three ER episodes, the National Geographic documentary God Grew Tired of Us, and more recently in the feature film Blood Diamond starring Leonardo DiCaprio.
Emmanuel Jal was born in war-torn Sudan, and while he doesn’t know exactly when, he believes it was in the early 1980s. He was taken from his family home in 1987 when he was six or seven years old, and sent to fight with the rebel army in Sudan’s bloody civil war. For nearly five years, he was a “child warrior,” put into battle carrying an AK-47 that was taller than he was.
By the time he was 13, he was a veteran of two civil wars and had seen hundreds of his fellow child soldiers reduced to taking unspeakable measures as they struggled to survive on the killing fields of Southern Sudan. After a series of harrowing events, he was rescued by a British aid worker (Emma McCune) who smuggled him into Nairobi to raise him as her own.
To help ease the pain of what he had experienced, Emmanuel started singing. In 2005, he released his first album, Gua (”peace” in his native Nuer tongue), with the title track broadcast across Africa over the BBC and becoming a number one hit in Kenya. Gua also earned him a spot on Bob Geldof’s “Live 8″ concert in the UK.
Jal performed at Nelson Mandela’s 90th birthday celebrations in Hyde Park, London, June 08, he shared a stage with Alicia Keys, Annie Lennox, Damien Marley and Stephen Marley at the Black Ball in London in July 08 and also addressed delegates at the UN in New York in the same month, Jal was invited back to play at the Black Ball again in NYC in November of the same year, and Alicia Keys dueted with him on his performance of ‘Emma” from his album ‘Warchild”.
In October 2008 and February 2009 Emmanuel toured universities of the United States where he appeared as a speaker visiting FL, MA, OH NY, NC, SC, DC, AZ, MO, RI to name a few. Jal also performed with Moby and Omar Akim for Fighting in the 2007 live concert film, ‘The Concert To End Slavery’. Emmanuel also appeared in the music video ‘The Price of Silence’ released by Amnesty International in December 2008 to commemorate their 60th anniversary.
On February 12th 2009, Emmanuel was invited to ring the closing bell at the New York Stock exchange.
Jal has a full-length documentary on his life and times, which has been touring the film festival circuit. It premiered at the Berlinale in 2008, and won the Cadillac Audience Choice award at the Tribeca Film Festival, as well as the audience choice award at the Festival De Cine, Global Dominicano in the Dominican Republic, in the same year. His autobiography 'War Child' was released through St Martin's Press on Feb 5th 2009, and released in the UK through Little Brown on March 5th 2009. His new album ‘Warchild’ was released on 12th May 2008 on the Sonic360 label (distribution by ADA Global) with additional production and mix by Neal Pogue,
(Outkast, Talib Kweli, Pharohae Monch). www.emmanueljal.org
Emmanuel Jal also funded a charity called Gua Africa. It's first goal being to build a school in his hometown of Leer, Sudan. The school will be called 'The Emma Academy' in honor of Emma McCune the British aid worker who rescued him. www.gua-africa.org