First, They Erased Our Name: A Rohingya Speaks

Description:

"I am three years old and will have to grow up with the hostility of others. I am already an outlaw in my own country, an outlaw in the world. I am three years old, and I don't yet know that I am stateless."

Habiburahman was born in 1979 and raised in a small village in western Burma. When he was three years old, the country's military leader declared that his people, the Rohingya, were not one of the 135 recognized ethnic groups that formed the eight "national races." He was left stateless in his own country.

Since 1982, millions of Rohingya have had to flee their homes as a result of extreme prejudice and persecution. In 2016 and 2017, the government intensified the process of ethnic cleansing, and over 700,000 Rohingya people were forced to cross the border into Bangladesh.

Here, for the first time, a Rohingya speaks up to expose the truth behind this global humanitarian crisis. Through the eyes of a child, we learn about the historic persecution of the Rohingya people and witness the violence Habiburahman endured throughout his life until he escaped the country in 2000.

First, They Erased Our Name is an urgent, moving memoir about what it feels like to be repressed in one's own country and a refugee in others. It gives voice to the voiceless.

Brief description:

Sophie Ansel was born in Brittany and has worked in Taiwan, the United States, Australia, Malaysia, and Thailand. In 2005 and 2006 she first went to Burma, where five years of investigation led her to collect the testimonies of hundreds of Burmese of all ethnicities and led to her first work about the subject, the film Dans l'ombre de ton sourire (2007). She has also written the testimony of Navy Soth called Les Larmes Interdites (Forbidden Tears), and the biography of Habib, a stateless young Burmese called Nous les innommables-un tabou birman.

Review Quotes:

"The gripping, chilling inside story of the incubation of a genocide...Habib's moving family history emerges as a powerful and, to my knowledge, unique historical document. His compelling storytelling relates how playground prejudice against the Muslim Rohingya of Arakan escalated into pogroms, terror, and apartheid...Incredible."