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Those We Throw Away Are Diamonds: A Refugee's Search for Home
A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice • Named a Best Nonfiction Book of 2021 by Kirkus • A New York Times Book Review Paperback Row Selection • Shortlisted for the Moore Prize for Human Rights Writing
A stunning and heartbreaking lens on the global refugee crisis, from a man who faced the very worst of humanity and survived to advocate for displaced people around the world
One day when Mondiant Dogon, a Bagogwe Tutsi born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, was only three years old, his father’s lifelong friend, a Hutu man, came to their home with a machete in his hand and warned the family they were to be killed within hours. Dogon’s family fled into the forest, initiating a long and dangerous journey into Rwanda. They made their way to the first of several UN tent cities in which they would spend decades. But their search for a safe haven had just begun.
Hideous violence stalked them in the camps. Even though Rwanda famously has a former refugee for a president in Paul Kagame, refugees in that country face enormous prejudice and acute want. For much of his life, Dogon and his family ate barely enough to keep themselves from starving. He fled back to Congo in search of the better life that had been lost, but there he was imprisoned and left without any option but to become a child soldier.
For most refugees, the camp starts as an oasis but soon becomes quicksand, impossible to leave. Yet Dogon managed to be one of the few refugees he knew to go to college. Though he hid his status from his fellow students out of shame, eventually he would emerge as an advocate for his people.
Rarely do refugees get to tell their own stories. We see them only for a moment, if at all, in Syrians winding through the desert; children searching a Greek shore for their parents; families gathered at the southern border of the United States. But through his writing, Dogon took control of his own narrative and spoke up for forever refugees everywhere.
As Dogon once wrote in a poem, “Those we throw away are diamonds.”
A stunning and heartbreaking lens on the global refugee crisis, from a man who faced the very worst of humanity and survived to advocate for displaced people around the world
One day when Mondiant Dogon, a Bagogwe Tutsi born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, was only three years old, his father’s lifelong friend, a Hutu man, came to their home with a machete in his hand and warned the family they were to be killed within hours. Dogon’s family fled into the forest, initiating a long and dangerous journey into Rwanda. They made their way to the first of several UN tent cities in which they would spend decades. But their search for a safe haven had just begun.
Hideous violence stalked them in the camps. Even though Rwanda famously has a former refugee for a president in Paul Kagame, refugees in that country face enormous prejudice and acute want. For much of his life, Dogon and his family ate barely enough to keep themselves from starving. He fled back to Congo in search of the better life that had been lost, but there he was imprisoned and left without any option but to become a child soldier.
For most refugees, the camp starts as an oasis but soon becomes quicksand, impossible to leave. Yet Dogon managed to be one of the few refugees he knew to go to college. Though he hid his status from his fellow students out of shame, eventually he would emerge as an advocate for his people.
Rarely do refugees get to tell their own stories. We see them only for a moment, if at all, in Syrians winding through the desert; children searching a Greek shore for their parents; families gathered at the southern border of the United States. But through his writing, Dogon took control of his own narrative and spoke up for forever refugees everywhere.
As Dogon once wrote in a poem, “Those we throw away are diamonds.”
336 pages, Paperback
First published October 12, 2021
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2456 people want to read
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April 5, 2022
Audiobook….read by Dominic
Hoffman
….12 hours and 23 minutes
Books like this one changes us……
an unbelievable true story!!!
Mondiant Dogon’s shares gripping, devastating details about he and his family—(his baby sister died from starvation) —fleeing from their village home - [from the Congo-Rwanda wars].
Dogon was only 3 year old - (1995)- when his family was threatened with a machete —
The family had to run for their lives. They hid in the jungle and walked during the night to avoid meeting killers on the road.
This story is so breathtakingly told - so matter-of-fact -compassionately told - that I felt the horrors - the fear - their hunger - the confusion-the apathy - the nonstop danger - the violence -
all the more than if
I had been watching a televised film of visual bloody war battles.
“The pain was so deep that even among them, they could not talk about what they had witnessed, which led to a terrible, debilitating silence”.
My god….for such a horrific account of this very primal personal story…
I was brought to tears not only from the facts themselves from such maddening insanity war is in our world —
but for the love and inspiration I felt for this beautiful man: Mondiant Dogon.
To grow up in a place where war, violence, hunger, and poverty were normal, it’s remarkable as hell - to learn what this one man did to create a better life for himself,
but not only for himself.
One of the messages Dogon wants readers to take from this book is the way we look at refugees. He wants to ….
“show the world how smart, hopeful, courageous, ambitious, empathetic and kind refugees are, in spite of the war, violence, trauma, dehumanization we encounter growing up in refugee camps, and the cruelty of having to become an adult too quickly”.
Mondiant said that by telling this story over and over again -it’s been healing.
“I realized that my community needed to share their stories in order to heal the invisible wounds caused by war and violence. One way to do that was through art”.
Wow…..art? Heck yeah! Our inspiring author is a gifted artful-storyteller-writer.
Many times other people say or write things that are so true…and we know we could not have said or written them better…
So at those times we beg-borrow-and steal their words to ‘continue’ to pass on the message.
I borrow these words written by Jessica Goudeau, author of ‘After the last Border’…..
“This incandescent book will transform you. ‘Those We Throw Away Are Diamonds’ offers an immersion, riveting look at one Bagogwe man’s singular journey from war in Congo to safety, in which good and evil are relative when war offers no good choices to anyone, when safety is an allusion, and when forgiveness is fraught. It is an uncompromising study in colonial powers as the root cause of rising displacement after centuries of redrawing boundaries, fomenting ethnic crises, and robbing regions of natural resources. But even as it offers high-level, international context, the book remains focused on the people whose lives are destroyed by war and policies, by disinterest and pity. Mondiant Dogon writes stories of his community was such candor, compassion, and love that they can never be erased. I know I will never forget them”.
Amen!
Dogon is a graduate from NYU. He spent 20 years in the refugee camps in Rwanda.
He had an important story to tell…. memories he didn’t want lost - memories worth sharing in hopes of healing others.
Today Dogon is an author, human rights activist, refugee ambassador, and founder of the Mondiant Initiative.
Born into a Congolese Tutsi family in Bagogwe tribe in North Kivu province.
Hoffman
….12 hours and 23 minutes
Books like this one changes us……
an unbelievable true story!!!
Mondiant Dogon’s shares gripping, devastating details about he and his family—(his baby sister died from starvation) —fleeing from their village home - [from the Congo-Rwanda wars].
Dogon was only 3 year old - (1995)- when his family was threatened with a machete —
The family had to run for their lives. They hid in the jungle and walked during the night to avoid meeting killers on the road.
This story is so breathtakingly told - so matter-of-fact -compassionately told - that I felt the horrors - the fear - their hunger - the confusion-the apathy - the nonstop danger - the violence -
all the more than if
I had been watching a televised film of visual bloody war battles.
“The pain was so deep that even among them, they could not talk about what they had witnessed, which led to a terrible, debilitating silence”.
My god….for such a horrific account of this very primal personal story…
I was brought to tears not only from the facts themselves from such maddening insanity war is in our world —
but for the love and inspiration I felt for this beautiful man: Mondiant Dogon.
To grow up in a place where war, violence, hunger, and poverty were normal, it’s remarkable as hell - to learn what this one man did to create a better life for himself,
but not only for himself.
One of the messages Dogon wants readers to take from this book is the way we look at refugees. He wants to ….
“show the world how smart, hopeful, courageous, ambitious, empathetic and kind refugees are, in spite of the war, violence, trauma, dehumanization we encounter growing up in refugee camps, and the cruelty of having to become an adult too quickly”.
Mondiant said that by telling this story over and over again -it’s been healing.
“I realized that my community needed to share their stories in order to heal the invisible wounds caused by war and violence. One way to do that was through art”.
Wow…..art? Heck yeah! Our inspiring author is a gifted artful-storyteller-writer.
Many times other people say or write things that are so true…and we know we could not have said or written them better…
So at those times we beg-borrow-and steal their words to ‘continue’ to pass on the message.
I borrow these words written by Jessica Goudeau, author of ‘After the last Border’…..
“This incandescent book will transform you. ‘Those We Throw Away Are Diamonds’ offers an immersion, riveting look at one Bagogwe man’s singular journey from war in Congo to safety, in which good and evil are relative when war offers no good choices to anyone, when safety is an allusion, and when forgiveness is fraught. It is an uncompromising study in colonial powers as the root cause of rising displacement after centuries of redrawing boundaries, fomenting ethnic crises, and robbing regions of natural resources. But even as it offers high-level, international context, the book remains focused on the people whose lives are destroyed by war and policies, by disinterest and pity. Mondiant Dogon writes stories of his community was such candor, compassion, and love that they can never be erased. I know I will never forget them”.
Amen!
Dogon is a graduate from NYU. He spent 20 years in the refugee camps in Rwanda.
He had an important story to tell…. memories he didn’t want lost - memories worth sharing in hopes of healing others.
Today Dogon is an author, human rights activist, refugee ambassador, and founder of the Mondiant Initiative.
Born into a Congolese Tutsi family in Bagogwe tribe in North Kivu province.
August 13, 2021
Read if you: Want an astonishing memoir about life as a (Congolese) refugee.
Important to note: As you can imagine, this is a brutal read at times. The terror, violence, and loss that Mondiant Dogon endured when he was only five years old is immense. However--many books about refugee experiences are rarely written by those that have experienced it first hand. Utterly powerful, devastating, but filled with love for his family and his country (as it was and could be). The horror of Belgian colonization is an important aspect to Congo's history, which is woven throughout the narrative.
Librarians/booksellers: Definitely one of the best books about refugee experiences in some time.
Many thanks to Penguin Group and NetGalley for a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.
Important to note: As you can imagine, this is a brutal read at times. The terror, violence, and loss that Mondiant Dogon endured when he was only five years old is immense. However--many books about refugee experiences are rarely written by those that have experienced it first hand. Utterly powerful, devastating, but filled with love for his family and his country (as it was and could be). The horror of Belgian colonization is an important aspect to Congo's history, which is woven throughout the narrative.
Librarians/booksellers: Definitely one of the best books about refugee experiences in some time.
Many thanks to Penguin Group and NetGalley for a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.
October 19, 2021
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An e-arc of the book has been provided by the publisher, Penguin Random House International, in exchange for an honest review.
A poignant and beautiful eye-opening life story of a Congonese refugee.
The intensity of this memoirs is truly mind-blowing. At some point, while reading this book, my mind keeps on blocking the reality of the story. I was reading it as something that is fictional to stop myself from cascading into anxiety. It was surreal to read the firsthand experience of a boy—a BOY! might I remind you—experiencing genocide. It is appalling and I needed to put the book down to breathe as, one by one, this boy’s friends and family dies. Never experiencing proper childhood but the horror of life, Mondiant became so much older for his age. Despite all that, he never lost that light of kindness within him. Considering it ate up most of his childhood life, it was an amazing thing how he never resorted to the violence the life has offered.
It breaks my heart that the reality of our world is extremely cruel. The never ending war, big or small, ruins so many wonderful experiences these kids and families could have had. Mondiant told his story. He showed us his vulnerability in order for us to know his truth. I want to give him a huge hug.
An e-arc of the book has been provided by the publisher, Penguin Random House International, in exchange for an honest review.
“I hoped that none of these new refugees would be forgotten as we were for decades, forever lost in a permanent impermanence.”
A poignant and beautiful eye-opening life story of a Congonese refugee.
The intensity of this memoirs is truly mind-blowing. At some point, while reading this book, my mind keeps on blocking the reality of the story. I was reading it as something that is fictional to stop myself from cascading into anxiety. It was surreal to read the firsthand experience of a boy—a BOY! might I remind you—experiencing genocide. It is appalling and I needed to put the book down to breathe as, one by one, this boy’s friends and family dies. Never experiencing proper childhood but the horror of life, Mondiant became so much older for his age. Despite all that, he never lost that light of kindness within him. Considering it ate up most of his childhood life, it was an amazing thing how he never resorted to the violence the life has offered.
“I was so young. But living through a war makes you older. When you are three or four or five years old and you spend a year living in a war you become as wise as if you were twenty years old. You learn when to close your eyes and how to keep them open even while you sleep. You stop asking for food no matter how hungry you are. You see people dying wherever you go, and you you say, “Wow, I’m next.”
It breaks my heart that the reality of our world is extremely cruel. The never ending war, big or small, ruins so many wonderful experiences these kids and families could have had. Mondiant told his story. He showed us his vulnerability in order for us to know his truth. I want to give him a huge hug.
December 21, 2021
Dogon’s story begins in his early childhood in the family village in Congo. As part of an ethnic minority, their lives are very much in danger, and they must flee the country. At only five years old, the incredible brutality he witnesses is just unfathomable; it is ravaging to even read. The atrocities continue even after the family has made it across the border into Rwanda and are in refugee camps, and Dogon doesn’t allow readers to look away as he presents clear, direct descriptions.
As his life continues through his teen years, readers will continue to feel the incredible plight of not only Dogon and the Tutsi refugees, but indeed that of many refugees around the globe. He states that awareness is his intent, and Those We Throw Away Are Diamonds certainly achieves the goal.
Thank you to Mondiant Dogon, Penguin Press, and NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
As his life continues through his teen years, readers will continue to feel the incredible plight of not only Dogon and the Tutsi refugees, but indeed that of many refugees around the globe. He states that awareness is his intent, and Those We Throw Away Are Diamonds certainly achieves the goal.
Thank you to Mondiant Dogon, Penguin Press, and NetGalley for an advance reader copy in exchange for an honest review.
October 16, 2021
Everyone should read this book. Very well written. Mondiant Dogon only five years old experienced a horrible live as a refugee. A very powerful and devastating book. This author actually experienced this life and you can imagine what he went through as you read this book. A must read.
March 16, 2022
This is a story of Mondiant, a Congolese refugee. You will read about all the places his journey as a refugee took him after fleeing his home at age 3 to escape being murdered for his ethnicity. This book will haunt you but in the best and most thought provoking ways. You will find yourself more grateful and more aware of the world around you. It’s easy to get lost in your own little corner of the world, and Mondiant is making sure that doesn’t happen.
January 20, 2023
Reading about the atrocities that people displaced from the Democratic Republic of Congo have endured was eye-opening and horrific. This man's life is nothing short of a miracle and how he has worked so hard to become educated to bring himself out of the refugee camp is inspiring. I was very sheltered from the facts about the war in Congo and Rwanda and I appreciated this story being told so I could become more aware. The author does an amazing job of explaining the history and the really painting the picture of what life was like before the war began and after. He also shines light on what all refugees around the world go through, and I am grateful to have been able to read and learn about his experiences.
October 27, 2022
One of the greatest non fiction sagas I've ever read.
This is the best glimpse into the nightmare world where suddenly your life long friends morph into savage blood thirty zombies who want to chop you up with machetes and you have to run through the woods hunted by them with no food ,It is a testimony of the will to live, family love and spirituality that rivals anything in the bible.
This is the best glimpse into the nightmare world where suddenly your life long friends morph into savage blood thirty zombies who want to chop you up with machetes and you have to run through the woods hunted by them with no food ,It is a testimony of the will to live, family love and spirituality that rivals anything in the bible.
June 24, 2022
My first five Star book in a while. I highly recommend to anyone and everyone. I have never heard such an incredible story. I have read several refugee books, and I don’t mean to compare one person‘s horrors to another’s, but this was the most astonishing and incredible story I’ve read. And it was beautifully written. Eye-opening. I so appreciate Mondiant’s choosing to record his story so that we can hear his account of life as a refugee in Rwanda.
October 23, 2021
I am grateful for Mondiant Dogan for writing so graphic an account of his time in a refugee camp. I am also very sorry that the subject was even available for him. Is the day near when we, as humans, will have respect and acceptance for others so that situations such as Dogan shares would be unheard of? If we are going to survive, we must adopt another perspective about life and its value.
June 1, 2023
I have a lot of thoughts that don't all fit together. First of all, I actually really liked the non-linear style of the book, the way the story kind of meandered forward and then back again, or jumped ahead for a particular detail, or added something in that happened much earlier chronologically but fits in topically at a certain point. It's something I've seen before, and since I'm not used to it, that can make it confusing. But it was done well and really supported Dogon's exploration of trauma and the way it affects perception and memory.
The explanation of the historical significance of colonization, and how it created the foundation for the conflict between the Hutus and Tutsis. In America, we tend to create a division between the past and the present, to think of consequence in immediate terms, and to focus on the actions of individuals and not the network of individuals' actions and the way that each action influences others, both contemporaneously and in the future. People get REALLY uncomfortable with the idea of historical experiences having a legacy... but I don't see how anyone can read this and not see the evidence of such a legacy.
The explanation of the historical significance of colonization, and how it created the foundation for the conflict between the Hutus and Tutsis. In America, we tend to create a division between the past and the present, to think of consequence in immediate terms, and to focus on the actions of individuals and not the network of individuals' actions and the way that each action influences others, both contemporaneously and in the future. People get REALLY uncomfortable with the idea of historical experiences having a legacy... but I don't see how anyone can read this and not see the evidence of such a legacy.
May 13, 2022
Absolutely eye opening for me to experience life as a refugee in a world of war when becoming a child soldier is just as normal as hiding among dead bodies as a means to escape rebels. Mondiant shares so many memories of life on the run at 5 years old on, from decades in a refugee camp and his continued fight for education and the ability to return to the homeland from which his community fled 20 years prior. It struck me that the humbleness of his people would rather lie and justify a death by any other means than hunger when starvation is so clearly to blame. I struggled with so many names and phrases that I know I didn't do pronunciation justice but his story still grabbed at my heart in a way that stay with me.
August 12, 2025
My favorite memoir I have ever read. Mondiant has a gift for storytelling (that is clearly passed down from his grandmother) and reflection that is a testimony of the Bagogwe people and the grace of God.
August 21, 2022
Heart-wenching and brave. Mondiant’s story is a powerful testament to the strength and resilience of the human spirit, and a strong critique of the ways refugees are marginalized the world over. Very much looking forward to meeting the author this week.
March 9, 2023
One of the most horrific stories I’ve ever read…. and yet I want to tell everyone to read this book immediately. Not for the faint of heart, to say the least.
March 23, 2023
Audiobook 12 hours
December 5, 2022
Perhaps the most informative refugee book I’ve read. When there is no safe way back in one’s lifetime...what does one do? Or a family or an entire village do? Can the wrong(s) be righted? Why can’t the perpetrators be punished, or at least get them to stop and accept? How can the world community help? How can aid organizations up their game in the way that they help?
Thank you, Mondiant Dogon, for sharing your first hand account so that others may understand and perhaps improve. I went back and read online articles from around 2015 which talked of Congolese Tutsis, of the Bagogwe tribe, about to repatriate from Rwandan refugee camps, where they’d been for over 10 years, back "home” to the North Kivu province in eastern DRC. Your writing helped me understand what resulted when your people were given hope and lured back.
Best regards to you and your family.
Thank you, Mondiant Dogon, for sharing your first hand account so that others may understand and perhaps improve. I went back and read online articles from around 2015 which talked of Congolese Tutsis, of the Bagogwe tribe, about to repatriate from Rwandan refugee camps, where they’d been for over 10 years, back "home” to the North Kivu province in eastern DRC. Your writing helped me understand what resulted when your people were given hope and lured back.
Best regards to you and your family.
November 12, 2021
Those We Throw Away Are Diamonds: A Refugee's Search for Home, Mondiant Dogon, with Jenna Krajeski, authors; Dominic Hoffman, narrator
The author is a “Bagogwe Tutsi, born in the Democratic Republic of Congo.” This book is his story. It is a heartbreaking tale of tragedy and treachery. For two decades, Mondrian and his family, and thousands of other refugees driven from their homes in this Civil War, were subjected to deprivation and barbarism. Those who survived, only survived because of chance and/or miracles. How he survived to become so successful and ambitious is miraculous if anything. He is motivated now, completely by his desire to help those who were less fortunate than he was and who were unable to escape the life he left behind An enemy because he was a refugee in Rwanda, he soon became a traitor to those he left behind in Rwanda because they remained refugees without hope.
His tortured life began when he was just three years old, while living in the Congo, his first horrible memories of brutality began on the day that a Hutu neighbor and friend warned his father to run. The Hutus were coming to kill anyone that was a Tutsi. The why and the how are explained by the author, and the fact that this hatred and these attacks went on for decades is unexplainable to those that have no way to understand their culture and poverty. The fact that most of his family survived defies reality after their story is told.
After the neighbor left, they quickly packed what they could carry, including Mondrian’s infant sister. They ran and ran. Over and over, they thought they reached safety, only to be run out of their homes again. On this nightmare journey, his little sister Patience succumbed to starvation, his “Aunt” Florence was brutally murdered, his uncle and others were beheaded, his father was beaten and imprisoned for being a Tutsi refugee, others were burned alive.
Mondrian witnessed the murder of his relatives and young friends, for years, and he was unable to prevent any of it from happening. Impoverished, starving, always in danger, he still never gave up hope of getting back to his homeland, even after, alone at 12 years old, he felt it necessary to join the rebels as a child soldier in order to survive. He was called abusive names by his classmates, when he managed to go to school, because he was a refugee in rags, and was considered to be no better than a cockroach”. Often the members of his family was separated as one or another member searched for food, ran in a different direction, or tried to find a safe haven to rest. During the two decades his mother gave birth to more children, and eventually, they felt safe in a refugee camp, though not always together. Sometimes they were surprised to find someone alive.
Mondrian lived in a refugee camp in Rwanda for twenty years, always hoping to soon return to his in the Congo. Stateless, without papers, he was unable to get aid and patiently worked the system so he could, at least, get an education. Promise after promise was broken and the refugees were abandoned, although the United Nations Refugee Agenc, the UNHCR, did what it could, but it was never enough.
No matter the nightmare, Mondrian, rarely gave up hope which is why he thinks he was eventually able to escape, although he realizes that it was also good fortune and the kindness of others, the fortune and kindness not available to others. After years of trying, he finally graduated from high school. He was very proud. He also enrolled in College and eventually also graduated, as well. When an offer came from a benefactor in America, to complete his education with a Master’s Degree, he immediately agreed, aghast by his good fortune but so very grateful. The book tells the story of his journey to America, his startup non-profit business, Seeds of Hope, and his singular desire to help those of his country less fortunate than he is.
While the story is really powerful, and it will not fail to touch your heart and shock your mind, it is in need of some heavy editing because it is extremely repetitious. The title is from a poem written by the author which stresses the fact that where you come from does not determine your worth, who you are and what you achieve are the more important factors. He inspires hope.
The author is a “Bagogwe Tutsi, born in the Democratic Republic of Congo.” This book is his story. It is a heartbreaking tale of tragedy and treachery. For two decades, Mondrian and his family, and thousands of other refugees driven from their homes in this Civil War, were subjected to deprivation and barbarism. Those who survived, only survived because of chance and/or miracles. How he survived to become so successful and ambitious is miraculous if anything. He is motivated now, completely by his desire to help those who were less fortunate than he was and who were unable to escape the life he left behind An enemy because he was a refugee in Rwanda, he soon became a traitor to those he left behind in Rwanda because they remained refugees without hope.
His tortured life began when he was just three years old, while living in the Congo, his first horrible memories of brutality began on the day that a Hutu neighbor and friend warned his father to run. The Hutus were coming to kill anyone that was a Tutsi. The why and the how are explained by the author, and the fact that this hatred and these attacks went on for decades is unexplainable to those that have no way to understand their culture and poverty. The fact that most of his family survived defies reality after their story is told.
After the neighbor left, they quickly packed what they could carry, including Mondrian’s infant sister. They ran and ran. Over and over, they thought they reached safety, only to be run out of their homes again. On this nightmare journey, his little sister Patience succumbed to starvation, his “Aunt” Florence was brutally murdered, his uncle and others were beheaded, his father was beaten and imprisoned for being a Tutsi refugee, others were burned alive.
Mondrian witnessed the murder of his relatives and young friends, for years, and he was unable to prevent any of it from happening. Impoverished, starving, always in danger, he still never gave up hope of getting back to his homeland, even after, alone at 12 years old, he felt it necessary to join the rebels as a child soldier in order to survive. He was called abusive names by his classmates, when he managed to go to school, because he was a refugee in rags, and was considered to be no better than a cockroach”. Often the members of his family was separated as one or another member searched for food, ran in a different direction, or tried to find a safe haven to rest. During the two decades his mother gave birth to more children, and eventually, they felt safe in a refugee camp, though not always together. Sometimes they were surprised to find someone alive.
Mondrian lived in a refugee camp in Rwanda for twenty years, always hoping to soon return to his in the Congo. Stateless, without papers, he was unable to get aid and patiently worked the system so he could, at least, get an education. Promise after promise was broken and the refugees were abandoned, although the United Nations Refugee Agenc, the UNHCR, did what it could, but it was never enough.
No matter the nightmare, Mondrian, rarely gave up hope which is why he thinks he was eventually able to escape, although he realizes that it was also good fortune and the kindness of others, the fortune and kindness not available to others. After years of trying, he finally graduated from high school. He was very proud. He also enrolled in College and eventually also graduated, as well. When an offer came from a benefactor in America, to complete his education with a Master’s Degree, he immediately agreed, aghast by his good fortune but so very grateful. The book tells the story of his journey to America, his startup non-profit business, Seeds of Hope, and his singular desire to help those of his country less fortunate than he is.
While the story is really powerful, and it will not fail to touch your heart and shock your mind, it is in need of some heavy editing because it is extremely repetitious. The title is from a poem written by the author which stresses the fact that where you come from does not determine your worth, who you are and what you achieve are the more important factors. He inspires hope.
October 11, 2021
The life of most refugees is inhumane. That becomes clear after reading the emotional, honest, and heartbreaking account of the horrifying life Mondiant and his family lived. A Tutsi, born in Congo, first fled with his family into the nearby forest to hide, which was the beginning of their lives on the run. They eventually relocated to Rwanda to reside in various refugee camps where they suffered continuous violence, poverty, and extreme hunger.
The author realized his only way to a better life was through education, and he worked hard to attend school, eventually enrolling in graduate school in the U.S. Never feeling like they belonged, Mondiant and his family hoped to one day return to Congo, their homeland, but the continuous war made it too dangerous, and the beautiful country they remembered, was destroyed.
Mondiant's accounts of what he and his family went through are difficult to read, almost inconceivable. His story shows that humans can survive almost anything if they believe in themselves and their worth as human beings. An exceptional read.
Thank you to Mondiant Dogon, publisher, and Netgalley for this ARC.
The author realized his only way to a better life was through education, and he worked hard to attend school, eventually enrolling in graduate school in the U.S. Never feeling like they belonged, Mondiant and his family hoped to one day return to Congo, their homeland, but the continuous war made it too dangerous, and the beautiful country they remembered, was destroyed.
Mondiant's accounts of what he and his family went through are difficult to read, almost inconceivable. His story shows that humans can survive almost anything if they believe in themselves and their worth as human beings. An exceptional read.
Thank you to Mondiant Dogon, publisher, and Netgalley for this ARC.
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October 30, 2021Thank you to Penguin Press for sending me a beautiful finished copy of Mondiant Dogon's heartwrenching, insightful book about his life as a refugee. It is impossible to read this book without learning something and feeling a lot. You will see the worst of humanity because Dogon shares his own story with brutal, devastating honestly. He is a Tutsi, born in the Congo, and was forced to flee his home during the genocide. They ran, hiding in forests, eventually arriving in Rwanda where they lived through continuous violence, starvation, and multiple moves from one refugee camp to the next.
He eventually seeks an education which allowed him to go to graduate school in the United States. His family always hoped to return to their homeland, but the continuous war would see the place they knew destroyed. Between August 1998 and April 2003, an estimated 3.8 million people died.
But, ultimately this is a story of survival, resilience and hope, and teaches the rest of us to find the compassion we need to make a home for the refugees of the world. I wish that everyone would read it.
He eventually seeks an education which allowed him to go to graduate school in the United States. His family always hoped to return to their homeland, but the continuous war would see the place they knew destroyed. Between August 1998 and April 2003, an estimated 3.8 million people died.
But, ultimately this is a story of survival, resilience and hope, and teaches the rest of us to find the compassion we need to make a home for the refugees of the world. I wish that everyone would read it.
April 4, 2022
A true account of the author's journey as a refugee from The Democratic Republic of the Congo during the 1990s. He describes in some detail the horrors of some of his experiences as well as details of his life in refugee camps in Rwanda and the DRC. Although this makes reading difficult, it is important that we know what some refugees go through. Although his experiences are personal and take place at specific refugee camps, some of the refugee camp experiences are universal.
December 12, 2021
Very Accurate Observation on Being A Refugee
The author gives a very clear view of his experience as a refugee from Rwanda and how the international organizations help refugees and hurt them too. How refugees are treated in many countries and how so few experience success.
The author gives a very clear view of his experience as a refugee from Rwanda and how the international organizations help refugees and hurt them too. How refugees are treated in many countries and how so few experience success.
March 3, 2022
With all of the new refugees in the world, this book is a must read. It tells one refugees story from one country, however it implores the reader to think about the global refugee "crisis" in New ways.
March 5, 2022
One of the most impactful books I've ever read. Should be required! Amazing man and brutally honest accounts.
July 2, 2025
Mondiant Dogon’s memoir, Those We Throw Away Are Diamonds: A Refugee’s Search for Home, is a deeply personal, searing, and powerful narrative about survival, displacement, and resilience. Born in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Dogon fled with his family to Rwanda during the Rwandan genocide, only to end up in a refugee camp where he would spend over 20 years of his life.
The book is more than a testimony of personal endurance—it’s an urgent call for empathy and action. Dogon sheds light on the human side of the refugee experience: the uncertainty, the loss of identity, and the fight for dignity in a world that often looks away.
⸻
Key Themes:
• Dehumanization of Refugees:
Dogon emphasizes how refugees are often treated as burdens or statistics rather than human beings with stories, dreams, and worth. The title itself—Those We Throw Away Are Diamonds—underscores the inherent value of people society disregards.
• Structural Injustice:
The memoir shows how broken international systems perpetuate suffering in refugee camps. Despite decades of peace in Rwanda, Dogon was still denied citizenship or proper resettlement options.
• Education as Empowerment:
Against all odds, Dogon gained an education and later became an advocate for refugee rights. His journey shows how access to education can change lives even in the harshest conditions.
⸻
A Humanitarian Perspective:
From a humanitarian standpoint, Those We Throw Away Are Diamonds reveals a clear moral imperative: we must change how we treat refugees. Dogon’s life is evidence that refugees are not helpless—they are simply hindered by unjust systems.
To frame this as a humanitarian issue means recognizing that:
• Refugees have the right to safety, dignity, and opportunity.
• Camps should not become permanent holding pens. People deserve integration, resettlement, or repatriation options.
• Refugees need access to education, healthcare, and employment to rebuild their lives.
• International laws and host nations must shift from viewing refugees as temporary burdens to embracing them as long-term contributors to society.
⸻
What Is the Right Thing to Do?
Based on the themes of the book and humanitarian ethics, here is what we ought to do for refugees:
1. Recognize Refugees as People First:
Policies should be rooted in empathy and the inherent dignity of every individual, not fear or political calculation.
2. Support Resettlement and Integration:
Host countries and international organizations must create clear, fair, and fast pathways for resettlement or permanent status.
3. Invest in Education and Livelihoods:
Refugees should not have to remain in limbo for decades. Education and work opportunities enable self-sufficiency and healing.
4. Hold Systems Accountable:
The international community must be willing to reform refugee systems that keep people trapped rather than help them rebuild.
5. Amplify Refugee Voices:
Letting refugees like Dogon tell their own stories is essential. Solutions should be shaped by the very people affected.
⸻
Final Thoughts:
Those We Throw Away Are Diamonds is a heartbreaking yet hopeful call to recognize the humanity in the displaced. It’s not just a memoir; it’s a demand for justice. Mondiant Dogon’s story is one of many, and it reminds us: when we fail refugees, we waste human potential. But when we listen, invest, and include, we all grow stronger.
The book is more than a testimony of personal endurance—it’s an urgent call for empathy and action. Dogon sheds light on the human side of the refugee experience: the uncertainty, the loss of identity, and the fight for dignity in a world that often looks away.
⸻
Key Themes:
• Dehumanization of Refugees:
Dogon emphasizes how refugees are often treated as burdens or statistics rather than human beings with stories, dreams, and worth. The title itself—Those We Throw Away Are Diamonds—underscores the inherent value of people society disregards.
• Structural Injustice:
The memoir shows how broken international systems perpetuate suffering in refugee camps. Despite decades of peace in Rwanda, Dogon was still denied citizenship or proper resettlement options.
• Education as Empowerment:
Against all odds, Dogon gained an education and later became an advocate for refugee rights. His journey shows how access to education can change lives even in the harshest conditions.
⸻
A Humanitarian Perspective:
From a humanitarian standpoint, Those We Throw Away Are Diamonds reveals a clear moral imperative: we must change how we treat refugees. Dogon’s life is evidence that refugees are not helpless—they are simply hindered by unjust systems.
To frame this as a humanitarian issue means recognizing that:
• Refugees have the right to safety, dignity, and opportunity.
• Camps should not become permanent holding pens. People deserve integration, resettlement, or repatriation options.
• Refugees need access to education, healthcare, and employment to rebuild their lives.
• International laws and host nations must shift from viewing refugees as temporary burdens to embracing them as long-term contributors to society.
⸻
What Is the Right Thing to Do?
Based on the themes of the book and humanitarian ethics, here is what we ought to do for refugees:
1. Recognize Refugees as People First:
Policies should be rooted in empathy and the inherent dignity of every individual, not fear or political calculation.
2. Support Resettlement and Integration:
Host countries and international organizations must create clear, fair, and fast pathways for resettlement or permanent status.
3. Invest in Education and Livelihoods:
Refugees should not have to remain in limbo for decades. Education and work opportunities enable self-sufficiency and healing.
4. Hold Systems Accountable:
The international community must be willing to reform refugee systems that keep people trapped rather than help them rebuild.
5. Amplify Refugee Voices:
Letting refugees like Dogon tell their own stories is essential. Solutions should be shaped by the very people affected.
⸻
Final Thoughts:
Those We Throw Away Are Diamonds is a heartbreaking yet hopeful call to recognize the humanity in the displaced. It’s not just a memoir; it’s a demand for justice. Mondiant Dogon’s story is one of many, and it reminds us: when we fail refugees, we waste human potential. But when we listen, invest, and include, we all grow stronger.
April 22, 2025
"We behaved as though honesty itself were a wound that needed healing... we tried to forget our own lives, so is it any wonder that the world forgot about us? Silence is a disease."
I can't believe that I had never heard of this book before stumbling upon it by accident at the local library. It is incredible.
Mondiant Dogon is part of the Bagogwe Tutsi ethnic group in central Africa. He was forced to literally walk out of the Democratic Republic of the Congo when he was 5 years old due to the ripple effects of the Hutu & Tutsi genocide that began in Rwanda. He spent over ten years in a refugee camp in Rwanda before being able to attend college at NYU.
This book is mostly a very explicit memoir of his experience continually fleeing genocide, serving as a child soldier, and living in a refugee camp. But it also contains a lot of insight into the refugee experience in general, and he does a good bit of reflecting about how his experience can be extrapolated to refugees in places like Syria and Central America. Mondiant is so wise, honest, compassionate, and reflective; this whole book resonated at my core.
Read this book if you are interested in the refugee experience. Read this book if you are interested in what it's really like in a UN refugee camp and how humanitarian aid is distributed. Read this book if you are interested in learning about the ongoing civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Read this book to listen to a story about what it's like to be a person truly and desperately on the margins of the whole world, clinging to hope in the midst of despair.
Read this book.
Trigger warning for just about anything that you can think of. This is a very graphic book about the horrors of war and hatred. For those who are able to stomach it, I believe the insight displayed in these pages is worth the journey through the misery.
I can't believe that I had never heard of this book before stumbling upon it by accident at the local library. It is incredible.
Mondiant Dogon is part of the Bagogwe Tutsi ethnic group in central Africa. He was forced to literally walk out of the Democratic Republic of the Congo when he was 5 years old due to the ripple effects of the Hutu & Tutsi genocide that began in Rwanda. He spent over ten years in a refugee camp in Rwanda before being able to attend college at NYU.
This book is mostly a very explicit memoir of his experience continually fleeing genocide, serving as a child soldier, and living in a refugee camp. But it also contains a lot of insight into the refugee experience in general, and he does a good bit of reflecting about how his experience can be extrapolated to refugees in places like Syria and Central America. Mondiant is so wise, honest, compassionate, and reflective; this whole book resonated at my core.
Read this book if you are interested in the refugee experience. Read this book if you are interested in what it's really like in a UN refugee camp and how humanitarian aid is distributed. Read this book if you are interested in learning about the ongoing civil war in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Read this book to listen to a story about what it's like to be a person truly and desperately on the margins of the whole world, clinging to hope in the midst of despair.
Read this book.
Trigger warning for just about anything that you can think of. This is a very graphic book about the horrors of war and hatred. For those who are able to stomach it, I believe the insight displayed in these pages is worth the journey through the misery.
August 8, 2022
"By writing about what came after that flight, after the gates to a refugee camp close and the journalists leave, I hoped to remind the world that the refugees' story doesn't end once they arrive in the camp. I hoped that none of these new refugees would be forgotten as we were for decades, forever refugees lost in a permanent impermanence."
This book. SO GOOD. Mondiant shares his story about being a Congolese Tutsi in the Bagogwe tribe, from Bikenke, a small village in the North Kivu province. You learn the strife between the Tutsis and Hutus, how prejudices quickly turn neighbors against neighbors, and how one moment changes your life forever, causing you to run, turning you into a refugee.
The way Mondiant writes makes it feel like you're there, walking the clay roads from Congo to Rwanda, sleeping in white UN tents, crying during the massacres and when young children drag the bodies to be buried. Mondiant doesn't just give you the physical stories of refugees - he gives the emotional ones, the ones about the toll it takes on parents who feel unable to take care of their children, the shame from being labeled a refugee, the silence that is learned because it is dangerous to speak up and share your story and fight for your human rights.
I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to read Mondiant's story. I can't recommend this book enough.
TW: childhood trauma, war, child soldiers, emotional trauma, machetes used against humans
This book. SO GOOD. Mondiant shares his story about being a Congolese Tutsi in the Bagogwe tribe, from Bikenke, a small village in the North Kivu province. You learn the strife between the Tutsis and Hutus, how prejudices quickly turn neighbors against neighbors, and how one moment changes your life forever, causing you to run, turning you into a refugee.
The way Mondiant writes makes it feel like you're there, walking the clay roads from Congo to Rwanda, sleeping in white UN tents, crying during the massacres and when young children drag the bodies to be buried. Mondiant doesn't just give you the physical stories of refugees - he gives the emotional ones, the ones about the toll it takes on parents who feel unable to take care of their children, the shame from being labeled a refugee, the silence that is learned because it is dangerous to speak up and share your story and fight for your human rights.
I am so thankful that I had the opportunity to read Mondiant's story. I can't recommend this book enough.
TW: childhood trauma, war, child soldiers, emotional trauma, machetes used against humans
April 20, 2024
What can I say about this book, except that it was impossible to put down. The only moments I could do so was to take a breath, to cry a little, to take in the truly phenomenal storytelling and writing which presented such extraneous and devastating circumstances with nuance, with candor, with unadulterated rawness.
In this moment in history particularly, as refugees around the world have been presented as the subjects and cause for fear mongering, who have been forgotten or forced out of frame— we witness once again as Mondiant experienced and so masterfully articulated entire villages and cities and peoples becoming refugees on their own lands, in their own countries, facing uninformed hateful rhetoric villainising a people eager for just the opportunity to live in dignity.
At a time where refugees have become a platform on which politicians campaign and a scapegoat for xenophobia and hate, I wish everyone would be required to read this book. I honestly think that if everyone did, the world would be a better place.
September 16, 2022
This is a haunting memoir. Throughout the narrative we read about the longing to return home - the life of cowherding, gathering food, helping neighbors, cooking around a fire, sharing stories, laughing and singing; and also about the depths of depravity and despair humans are capable of. Then, at times there are the little miracles of a helping hand or encouragement that completely alters someone's life trajectory as well as their perception of the world. There are unquestionable examples of day-to-day resilience (there must be a stronger word for people who've witnessed and survived massacres, continued to function and continue practicing respect and even compassion for others and their property). It's just kind of mind-blowing that anyone (in these circumstances for YEARS) can still walk and talk, much less study and do well in school and ultimately share the refugee story with the world.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 29, 2023
An absolutely riveting story. It is difficult for me to even process the kinds of experiences this young man had as a boy. But amidst the terrible things that happened, there were miracles and his life was spared many times. He expresses gratitude for the ways others helped him and his family - even at the risk of their own lives. He writes this, "My memory is fractured, but when I think about everything that happened to me and my family, one thing I know for sure is that when we needed help, we somehow found it. There are good people all over Congo...who would help each other if they had the chance." He repeats this several times in the book. How does someone endure what he had (and think of the many refugees like him with similar stories) and still come out the other side with hope, gratitude, and faith? It's a lot to ponder. I'm so grateful he shared his story with the world - and me.
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