Fiona Purdon interviews Emmanuel Jal
Jal, 29, was a boy soldier in the Sudan People's Liberation Army – the veteran of many confrontations in Sudan and Ethiopia.
His battle experiences and rise to become an international rap star, performing alongside the likes of Peter Gabriel and Coldplay, are detailed in his memoir War Child: A Boy Soldier's Story.
The London-based writer and rapper is still tormented by his childhood, as he explains from Kenya. He is performing in a series of fundraising concerts in Africa.
"I hear gunshots from an AK-47, I feel the bombs exploding, they wake me up. Certain sounds come into my head, they cloud my head," says Jal, who has been a guest of this month's Sydney Writers' Festival.
"I can hear people screaming. I hear the sounds over and over."
Read MoreHis battle experiences and rise to become an international rap star, performing alongside the likes of Peter Gabriel and Coldplay, are detailed in his memoir War Child: A Boy Soldier's Story.
The London-based writer and rapper is still tormented by his childhood, as he explains from Kenya. He is performing in a series of fundraising concerts in Africa.
"I hear gunshots from an AK-47, I feel the bombs exploding, they wake me up. Certain sounds come into my head, they cloud my head," says Jal, who has been a guest of this month's Sydney Writers' Festival.
"I can hear people screaming. I hear the sounds over and over."
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