Emmanuel Jal has no fixed record of when, exactly, he was born, but he is fairly sure that he was about seven years old when he was recruited as a child soldier in his native Sudan. He didn't need much persuading to join: three years previously, his father, a police officer, disappeared at the onset of the country's second civil war (raging from 1983 to, despite the 2005 peace agreement, this very day), and his mother had just been killed in the conflict. Hellbent on revenge, Jal very much wanted to represent the Sudan People's Liberation Army because, as he explains, "no one else in the world was going to help us".

From a vantage point of some 20 years, Jal still harbours fond memories of the SPLA. "Unlike many armies that have children," he says, "the SPLA trained us well." He recounts that the training lasted a full year, in which time he was taught how to cook, camp and how to be handy with both spears and AK-47s. "By the time they sent us out to battle, we couldn't wait. My friends, my family members, had been murdered; I wanted to kill as many Muslims and Arabs as I could."

Two decades on, the fact that Jal escaped with his life is just one remarkable aspect in what has come to be a remarkable life. Now in his late twenties – he estimates 28 – this strikingly good-looking young man has settled in London, and become intent on telling his story, not just once but over and over again. Today, he is a rapper, an author and even the subject of a documentary film. "I believe I have escaped for a reason," he says, quoting the title track of his forthcoming album, Warchild. "To tell my story, to touch lives."