EMMANUEL JAL TO FEATURE IN PICHA MTAANI DOCUMENTARY

Emmanuel Jal will feature in the upcoming documentary Picha Mtaani, initiated by CNN photojournalist of the year Boniface Mwangi.
The initiative is a youth-led national reconciliation initiative established to “to engage the Kenyan youth in finding lasting solutions to attaining peace and reconciliation; to healing the nation”.
Jal speaks about how he witnessed his auntie been raped at the age of five, losing his mother in the war and the anguish he went through during the Sudan Civil War as a child soldier. He narrates how hard life as a refugee was and why young Kenyans should stop do their best to avoid a recurrence of what happened in 2007.
The deal to appear on the documentary was stuck after Picha Mtaani Founder Boniface Mwangi and Emmanuel Jal met in London. Boniface was in London after attending the TED conference in Oxford as one of the 2010 TED Global fellows. London based Kenyan Filmmaker David Mbiyu of 601 TV shot the video.
The documentary brings you the human story, an eyewitness account, of the tragedy that befell Kenyans after the 2007 December elections. His song We Want Peace will also feature in the movie.

ATEMI SIGNED TO UK LABEL

Gatwitch Records, a UK-based label, founded by Sudanese rapper Emmanuel Jal, has signed Kenyan neo-soul and Afro-fusion artist, Atemi Oyungu.
The label that operates in London, Nairobi and Juba, is also home to gospel rapper Juliani and Sudanese world music artist, Nyaruach.

Afro-diva Atemi released her first solo single, Happy, in 2004. In 2008 she launched her debut album, Hatimaye.
That said, she is not new to the music scene. The singer made her mark on the music scene with the defunct all-girl group, Intu.
In 2003 Atemi joined Eric Wanaina, as an assistant vocal harmony provider for his Mapinduzi band. Together with the Eric and the band she performed in Zimbabwe, Ghana, Zanzibar’s Sauti Za Busara Festival, Holland’s Festival Mundial and North Sea Jazz Festival, on Big Brother Africa, in South Africa and at the Annual German Ambassadors Conference in Germany.
She also played a major role in Wainaina’s musical stage production, Luanda, and later in Wainaina’s biggest theatre production yet, Mo Faya.
Atemi who has been hosting an all-Africa TV show, Africa Rising, since 2009, not only gets a recording deal, the label will provide marketing, distribution and event organizing for her.
Gatwitch Records recorded Juliani’s 2008 hit album Mtaa Mentality.