Education

In Kenya Emmanuel attended school in Nairobi.

Career

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.

While studying in Kenya, Emmanuel started singing to ease the pain of what he has experienced. He also became very active in the community, raising money for local street children and refugees. With the encouragement of those around him, Emmanuel became increasingly involved in music and formed several groups. His first single, “All We Need Is Jesus,” was a hit in Kenya and received airplay in the UK.

Emmanuel Jal appears as the adult lead in the major motion picture Africa United, a Pathé, UK Film Council and BBC Films presentation in association with Warner Bros, released in October 2010. In 2013 Emmanuel was cast as one of lead characters in 'The Good Lie' alongside Reese Witherspoon. The film follows the journey of three 'Lost Boys' from South Sudan to the US, due for worldwide release through Warner Bros in February 2014.

Emmanuel's music has been used in films, documentary and TV including: Blood Diamond, Girl Rising, ER and National Geographic.

Achievements

• In 2008 a full-length documentary on his life was released. The film, Warchild, won 12 prestigious film festival awards worldwide. In the same year, his autobiography, also called Warchild, was published by Little Brown.

Works

• album

  • Independent

  • Help!: A Day in the Life - War Child

  • The Rough Guide to the Music of Sudan

  • Ceasefire - Riverboat

  • Live 8 at Eden: Africa Calling - Emd Int'l

  • Instant Karma: The Amnesty International Campaign To Save Darfur

  • Warchild - Sonic

  • Sudan Votes Music Hopes - MICT

  • Emmanuel Jal's 4th Studio Album

  • Sudan Votes Music Hopes REMIXED

  • See Me Mama

Politics

Emmanuel is a spokesman for the Make Poverty History campaign, the Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers and the Control Arms campaign.

Emmanuel is in demand as a speaker and has addressed the UN, US Congress, the Carter Centre and the highest tiers of several governments. He has been involved with the British Council, Clinton Global Initiative, Adolescent Girls Initiative (World Bank in association with the Nike Foundation), Child Soldiers Initiative and the launch of Ericsson's Refugees Reunited Software. He was one of the faces of Amnesty International's 2010 World Refugee Day Campaign and appeared at Alicia Keys' Keep a Child Alive Black Ball 2010 in London.

Connections

Step-mother:

Emma McCune

In Waat Emmanuel met Emma McCune, a British aid worker married to senior SPLA commandant Riek Machar. Emmanuel was only 11 years old then and Emma insisted he should not be a soldier. She adopted him and smuggled him to Kenya.Sadly Emma died in a road accident a few months later, but her friends helped Emmanuel to continue his studies.