Sudanese child soldier raps against gang violence in Britain

"My mum and my grandmother were beaten by government troops and my auntie was raped in front of me," he says. "It's only now that I can describe hating the people that did these things. Before, I didn't know what name to give that feeling - I just wanted to kill as many of them as possible."

It is difficult to reconcile the softly spoken Jal of today with the murderous figure he describes. His music and forthcoming autobiography are inspired by a desire to end the horrific abuse to which he was subjected. Before he had even hit his teens, he found himself in the anti-government SPLA. Told to forget his family and rid himself of emotions, he was turned into a killer. "I've participated in killing, during mob justice," he says, choosing his words carefully. "And, while I would not say I was sure that I shot somebody by myself, I was told that I killed people. When you're a kid, you don't fire like adults. Adults aim and shoot. We fire like this .. " He mimes shooting blindly, waving a gun above his head, while he looks down at his feet.

At the age of six, with his mother dead and his father fighting for the SPLA, Jal had been sent to a refugee camp in Ethiopia. While there, he and hundreds of other children were taken off to SPLA training camps where, according to Jal and the accounts of other former child soldiers, they were brainwashed, to prepare them for their new roles as fearless cannon-fodder. Of the hundreds who, years later, escaped from the SPLA across those minefields, only a dozen eventually reached Waat, in eastern Sudan. There Jal met Emma McCune, a Briton working for a Canadian charity that helped rescue child soldiers. A controversial figure because she was married to an SPLA leader (and soon to be the subject of a Tony Scott movie, Emma's War), McCune smuggled Jal to Kenya on an aid flight and later adopted him. A euphoric eulogy to her closes his album, but he is still mystified by her actions.

"I'm still asking myself, 'Why me? Why not my friends?' I don't have answers. It's the same for a child in an orphanage who is picked by a wealthy family to be put through school; they don't know why. Angelina Jolie and Madonna have adopted kids - when those kids grow, they won't understand why they were chosen either."

Not long after they had settled in Kenya, however, McCune was killed in a car accident. Homeless and living in Nairobi's slums, Jal began to see how music could help him and others. He joined a church choir and organised gigs to raise money for former child soldiers; then he discovered rap, and began to realise its potential for getting a message across. "Music is powerful," he says. "It is the only thing that can speak into your mind, your heart and your soul without your permission."

Jal is, however, critical of the commercialisation and sensationalism in mainstream hip-hop, its glorification of violence. One track, 50 Cent, sends a message to the US star, arguing that the violent content of the video games he stars in could be damaging the minds of his younger fans. "I wanted to talk to him, but there's no way I could call him on the phone," Jal says with a smile. "He doesn't know video games are harmful to the development of a child's brain, and to their sensitivity to violence. Hip-hop artists have to take responsibility, tell the kids, 'This is not real, it's entertainment.'"

This is also the concept behind the video shoot in London, where Jal now lives. He is trying to make a link between the childhood he had and life as it is lived by British children in gangs. "I grew up in poverty," he says. "For 25 years I was fed on aid. Knife crime and gun crime is poverty-driven, and poverty leads to insecurity. Only a coward will use a gun to protect and get respect for themselves." Rap remains his means of salvation - and his weapon of choice. "Music helped me as a person, and it creates awareness about my people. I've lost my childhood. I don't want other kids to lose theirs."

· The single Warchild is out now on Sonic360. The album is out on May 12.