First, They Erased Our Name: A Rohingya Speaks
For the first time, a Rohingya speaks up to expose the persecution facing his people
"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 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.
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Habiburahman, known as Habib, is a Rohingya. Born in 1979 in Burma (now Myanmar), he escaped torture, persecution, and detention in his country, fleeing first to neighboring countries in Southeast Asia, where he faced further discrimination and violence, and then, in December 2009, to Australia, by boat. Habib spent thirty-two months in detention centers before being released. He now lives in Melbourne. Today, he remains stateless, unable to benefit from his full human rights. Habib founded the Australian Burmese Rohingya Organization (ABRO) to advocate for his people back in Burma and for his community. He is also a translator, social worker, the support service coordinator at Refugees, Survivors, and Ex-Detainees (RISE), and the secretary of the international Rohingya organization Arakan Rohingya National Organisation (ARNO), based in the UK. The hardship and the human rights violation Habib has faced have made him both a spokesperson for his people and a target for detractors of the Rohingya cause.
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.
Andrea Reece is a translator of novels, short stories, and works of nonfiction from French and Spanish.
"This is my chance to speak for my people, who continue to suffer, but who are voiceless."
--The Guardian
"This is the gripping, chilling inside story of the incubation of a genocide. In a corner of Asia where hatred has raged for decades, 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. As he makes his arduous and dangerous escape, he writes "death is always snapping at our heels". What an incredible story. There are many who, after the killing fields of Cambodia, Bosnia, or Rwanda have said "Never again". It just did, in Burma, and here's how."
--Jonathan Miller, Foreign Affairs Correspondent, Channel 4 News
"The book is written in simple language and tells the story without embellishment. There is no need for flourishes; it is relentless."
--Gay Alcorn, The Guardian
"Written in a simple style appropriate to the childhood it records, the memoir is a devastating testimony of persecution."
--David McKechnie, The Irish Times
"Habiburahman is a vivid storyteller...It is a book that should be read the world over until the Rohingyas get justice...An essential read."
--Liam Heylin, Irish Examiner
"Habiburahman was a boy when Myanmar outlawed his ethnic group, the Rohingya, stripping its members of citizenship and turning them into a stateless people. His book is a rare account of growing up during the subsequent catastrophe for the Rohingya ... a useful addition to the literature of human rights abuses."
--Kirkus Reviews
"Here is the first account by a Rohingya of the decades-long oppression of his people, as well as a memoir of his own journey. Chilling and eye-opening."
--i
"The greatest barriers to stories such as Habiburahman's being heard, though. Are invalidation and indifference. Do not be indifferent to this urgent, humane book. Read it, share it, talk about what has been happening--and in so doing safeguard the humanity of Habiburahman, the Rohingya and all asylum seekers, as well as the imperilled humanity of this country."
--Maria Takolander, The Saturday Paper
