'Many kids there were so bitter, they wanted to know what happened to them. Jal spent several years fighting with the SPLA in Ethiopia, until war broke out there too and the child soldiers were forced back into Sudan by the fighting and joined the SPLA's efforts to fight the government in the town of Juba.

He then decided to join the thousands of children travelling to Ethiopia seeking education and opportunity.Īlong the way however, many of the children, Jal included, were recruited by the SPLA and taken to military training camps in the bush in Etwas disguised as a school in front of international aid agencies and UN representatives, but behind closed doors the children were training to fight. His father joined the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA) and when he was roughly seven years old, his mother was killed by soldiers loyal to the government. Jal was a young child when the Second Sudanese Civil War broke out. He does not know exactly when he was born, and records his date of birth as 1 January 1980. Jal was born to a Nuer family in the village of Tonj, Warrap State in the Bahr el Ghazal region of Sudan (now South Sudan). His autobiography, War Child: A Child Soldier's Story, was published in 2009. Emmanuel Jal (left in yellow) in concert in Bristol on 11 March 2006Įmmanuel Jal (born Jal Jok 1 January 1980) is a South Sudanese- Canadian artist, actor, former child soldier, and political activist.

Kuar olof dreijer remix