Emmanuel Jal (née Jal Jok, 1 January 1980) is a South Sudanese-Canadian rapper, actor, author, former child soldier, and political activist. His autobiography, War Child: A Child Soldier's Story, was published in 2009.

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). He does not know exactly when he was born, and records his date of birth as 1 January 1980.

Jal was a young child when the Second Sudanese Civil War broke out. His father joined the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA). When Jal was roughly seven years old, his mother was killed by Sudanese government soldiers. He then decided to join the thousands of children travelling to Ethiopia seeking education and opportunity.

Along 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.^{[citation needed]}

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. "Many kids there were so bitter, they wanted to know what happened to them. And we all wanted revenge."

When the fighting became unbearable Jal and some other children decided to run away. They were on the move for three months, with many dying on the way, until they reached the town of Waat, which was the headquarters of a small group that had separated themselves from the main SPLA.

In Waat, Jal met Emma McCune, a British aid worker married to senior SPLA commandant Riek Machar. Jal was only 11 years old then and McCune insisted he should not be a soldier. She adopted him and smuggled him to Kenya. There he attended school in Brookhouse International School in Nairobi. McCune died in a road accident a few months later, but her friends (Madeleine Bunting and Anna Ledgard) helped Jal to continue his studies. However, after McCune died, her husband Machar did not agree with Emmanuel staying with him, and he was forced to live in the slums (maybe before he came to Kileleshwa). He stayed in Kileleshwa with other refugees while attending Arboretum Sixth Form College.

With the help of a British aid worker (Emma McCune), Jal escaped into Kenya. But even that came with hardships as he lived for years in the slums. But Jal eventually stumbled upon hip-hop and discovered the genre harboured incredible power, both spiritual and political. While studying in Kenya, Jal started singing to ease the pain of what he had experienced. He also became very active in the community, raising money for local street children and refugees. With the encouragement of those around him like Gatkuoth Jal who has also gone through the same experience, Jal 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.