Documentary Tells Story Of Child Soldier Turned Rapper

A new independent documentary, War Child, tells the story of a Hip Hop artist emerging from the unlikeliest of places.

Emmanuel Jal is a young Sudanese man who, according to Huffingtonpost.com, doesn’t even know his own age (though he assumes he was born around 1980). Jal was a child soldier during the Sudanese Civil War of the 80s, and has now become a successful Hip Hop artist.

Jal was born in south Sudan. When war broke out, his father became a member of the rebel Sudanese People’s Liberation Army, fighting the government over the region’s resources.

After Jal’s mother was murdered by northern forces, his father was granted permission to have his son taken to Ethiopia to be educated. However, the boat of 350 capsized, and all but 50 drowned. The surviving children walked the rest of the way to Ethiopia, where many of them died of starvation and dehydration. They survived on urine and the vultures attracted to other children’s corpses.

Upon arrival, the children realized they had been sent not to school, but to train as warriors, learning to fire AK-47s and grenade launchers. “But none of us were forced to fight,” said Jal, who explained that they trained willingly. Jal was eight years old. Jal was involved in four large battles, which included shooting down villages.

Eventually, British aid worker, Emma McCune befriended Jal and eventually smuggled him aboard a plane bound for Kenya, where he went to school and eventually became a Hip Hop star.

The movie, titled War Child, opens this Friday (Nov. 14) at the Village East cinemas and in Washington DC on Dec. 4 at E Street Cinemas. It is also available to purchase or download on the main page: http://www.warchildmovie.com/pages.

Jal’s myspace page is http://www.myspace.com/emmanueljal.