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Eradication
‘Every night, I am killed
Every morning, I wake up again’
Poet-activist Mayyu Ali’s life has been shaped by his unrelenting resistance to the genocide of his people – the Rohingyas – one of the most oppressed Muslim minorities in the world. Since 1982, the Rohingyas have been refused citizenship, leaving them without basic rights and susceptible to exploitation. Denied a birth certificate and higher education, Ali became a voice of dissent at a young age as a poet and aid worker and, at great personal risk, as part of a covert group of activists devoted to documenting the human rights violations against the Rohingyas in Myanmar.
In 2017, widespread violence in the Rakhine State forced over 740,000 Rohingyas into refugee camps in neighbouring Bangladesh, Ali and his family among them. Undeterred by the horrific conditions there, he fought to provide accessible education, trauma counselling and creative outlets to the Rohingya youth in the camps. He also acted as an interpreter for foreign journalists and NGOs, helping them record the stories of survivors.
Ali’s outspoken criticism of the camps placed him and his family in the crosshairs of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, an armed insurgency group. Ali was forced into hiding for two years until he was finally granted asylum in Canada in 2021 where he continues to give voice to his people and their struggles. Mayyu Ali’s story is a rare, first-hand account of the gut-wrenching experience of the world’s largest stateless people – and one of history’s worst humanitarian crises.
Every morning, I wake up again’
Poet-activist Mayyu Ali’s life has been shaped by his unrelenting resistance to the genocide of his people – the Rohingyas – one of the most oppressed Muslim minorities in the world. Since 1982, the Rohingyas have been refused citizenship, leaving them without basic rights and susceptible to exploitation. Denied a birth certificate and higher education, Ali became a voice of dissent at a young age as a poet and aid worker and, at great personal risk, as part of a covert group of activists devoted to documenting the human rights violations against the Rohingyas in Myanmar.
In 2017, widespread violence in the Rakhine State forced over 740,000 Rohingyas into refugee camps in neighbouring Bangladesh, Ali and his family among them. Undeterred by the horrific conditions there, he fought to provide accessible education, trauma counselling and creative outlets to the Rohingya youth in the camps. He also acted as an interpreter for foreign journalists and NGOs, helping them record the stories of survivors.
Ali’s outspoken criticism of the camps placed him and his family in the crosshairs of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, an armed insurgency group. Ali was forced into hiding for two years until he was finally granted asylum in Canada in 2021 where he continues to give voice to his people and their struggles. Mayyu Ali’s story is a rare, first-hand account of the gut-wrenching experience of the world’s largest stateless people – and one of history’s worst humanitarian crises.
264 pages, Paperback
Published October 17, 2025
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
January 23, 2026
'People Stateless Are Without World'
A people
Since centuries
Had been dwelling in Arakan,
But for being Muslim minority
Not allowed to survive on their ancestral land.
And under restriction and persecution
And still in exile.
Ah! What apartheid!
No leader advocates about their national rights.
Is Myanmar without loyalist?
A people
Since decades
For being Muslims minority
Still under the blade and bullet
Still in hostile oppression
Still in rape and incarceration
Still in fire and fear.
Ah! What violence!
No whistle-blower proposes anything against it,
Is the world without independent investigation?
A people
Since decades
Due to ghastliness of oppressive exile
Leave the land to escape for lives
Seeking refuge in neighbouring countries.
But for being Muslims minority
Few country bears providing refuge.
Ah! What an adventure!
Are all states completed with own nations?
Is not there a space to settle on the earth?
A people
Since centuries
For being Muslims minority
Yet stateless
Having on the same earth
And under the same sky.
Why some of us are yet stateless?
Thus, Rohingyas can be considered
Not only without state
But also without world!
It's a difficult book to read but it's also fearless, resilient and an important book to read. It will make you ponder upon some very difficult questions as to "What happens to you when you're uprooted, displaced? What happens when your identity, your land, your nationality all is taken away and you're left stateless?"
Please read this book.
A people
Since centuries
Had been dwelling in Arakan,
But for being Muslim minority
Not allowed to survive on their ancestral land.
And under restriction and persecution
And still in exile.
Ah! What apartheid!
No leader advocates about their national rights.
Is Myanmar without loyalist?
A people
Since decades
For being Muslims minority
Still under the blade and bullet
Still in hostile oppression
Still in rape and incarceration
Still in fire and fear.
Ah! What violence!
No whistle-blower proposes anything against it,
Is the world without independent investigation?
A people
Since decades
Due to ghastliness of oppressive exile
Leave the land to escape for lives
Seeking refuge in neighbouring countries.
But for being Muslims minority
Few country bears providing refuge.
Ah! What an adventure!
Are all states completed with own nations?
Is not there a space to settle on the earth?
A people
Since centuries
For being Muslims minority
Yet stateless
Having on the same earth
And under the same sky.
Why some of us are yet stateless?
Thus, Rohingyas can be considered
Not only without state
But also without world!
It's a difficult book to read but it's also fearless, resilient and an important book to read. It will make you ponder upon some very difficult questions as to "What happens to you when you're uprooted, displaced? What happens when your identity, your land, your nationality all is taken away and you're left stateless?"
Please read this book.
January 24, 2026
The book starts with "hanri" a tradition of the Rohingya community which ties them to their land from birth to death. Since 1982 the same community is denied any basic rights on the same land. Mayyu was born a Rohingya therefore he doesn't have a birth certificate.
Reading about how the author's education journey diverted from his childhood friends just because of their identity or the humiliation drive he took just to acquire 'required documents' to continue his studies makes you realise the geographical privilege.
The act of betrayal by Aung San Suu Kyi was infuriating when I read it in newspapers but reading it through a Rohingya was heartbreaking. You get to see the love people had for her and yet she allowed massacre of the people who rallied for her. Read the open letter (annexed on the last slide)
This memoir covers 1962 coup to 2021 coup and everything that happened in between. The interviews from the camp made me close the book multiple times. It was too difficult to continue but the author has risked his life to document the G-cide of his people. Reading & sharing it is the least we can do. It also makes you realise how women gets the worse of it, not only they are killed but raped too. With least or no awareness pregnancies from such abuse are a whole different nightmare. The Rohingya community lived in camps during Covid, imagine their plight.
Both Mayyu and his daughter are tragedies of geography; one who has his hanri in Mayanmar and the other who never got her buried. A homeland too far away from their reach yet too close to their heart.
The poem at the end of the book written for his daughter makes your heart full. Although, these pages are written with blood & tears of countless dead. Mayyu still dares to hope. Hope to be welcomed in his homeland. Hope to build a home with his daughter from the ashes of his ancestral house.
Thank you @panmacmillanindia for the book.
Reading about how the author's education journey diverted from his childhood friends just because of their identity or the humiliation drive he took just to acquire 'required documents' to continue his studies makes you realise the geographical privilege.
The act of betrayal by Aung San Suu Kyi was infuriating when I read it in newspapers but reading it through a Rohingya was heartbreaking. You get to see the love people had for her and yet she allowed massacre of the people who rallied for her. Read the open letter (annexed on the last slide)
This memoir covers 1962 coup to 2021 coup and everything that happened in between. The interviews from the camp made me close the book multiple times. It was too difficult to continue but the author has risked his life to document the G-cide of his people. Reading & sharing it is the least we can do. It also makes you realise how women gets the worse of it, not only they are killed but raped too. With least or no awareness pregnancies from such abuse are a whole different nightmare. The Rohingya community lived in camps during Covid, imagine their plight.
Both Mayyu and his daughter are tragedies of geography; one who has his hanri in Mayanmar and the other who never got her buried. A homeland too far away from their reach yet too close to their heart.
The poem at the end of the book written for his daughter makes your heart full. Although, these pages are written with blood & tears of countless dead. Mayyu still dares to hope. Hope to be welcomed in his homeland. Hope to build a home with his daughter from the ashes of his ancestral house.
Thank you @panmacmillanindia for the book.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews