Emmanuel Jal.
Author
Rap star Emmanuel Jal is a former starving child soldier who contemplated suicide and cannibalism.
He’s topped the charts in his adopted home of Kenya, performed at Live 8 in Cornwall, and got a US tour lined up this year.
He was recruited to fight in Sudan’s civil war, by the age of eight had learnt to fire an AK47 and at 13 was fighting on the front line.
He trekked over 1,000 miles across Sudan, surviving drought and famine, and was eventually rescued and smuggled into Kenya.
Emmanuel Jal features on the soundtrack to the film Blood Diamond starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Djimon Hounsou.
North American rights to his autobiography War Child: A Child’s Story were sold to St. Martin’s Press in a hotly contested auction. UK rights to Little, Brown.