New memoir-poetry hybrid offers a rare, first-hand account of the Rohingya genocide, survival, and resistance through the eyes of a refugee-poet.
In Eradication: A Poet at the Heart of the Rohingya Genocide, releasing on 17 October from Pan Macmillan, poet-activist Mayyu Ali delivers an extraordinary account of persecution, exile, and survival from within one of the most harrowing humanitarian crises of our time.
Part memoir, part poetic testimony, Eradication is a rare and searing first-person narrative from inside the genocide of the Rohingyas, a stateless Muslim minority in Myanmar. Co-authored with French journalist Emilie Lopes and translated from the French by academic Siba Barkataki, the book is a powerful reminder of the costs of silence and the courage it takes to speak.
“Every night, I am killed. Every morning, I wake up again,” writes Ali, capturing the recursive trauma of a life defined by violence and displacement.
The Making of a Voice
Since 1982, the Rohingyas have been denied citizenship in Myanmar, stripped of basic rights, and subjected to systemic discrimination and violence. In 2017, the crisis reached its apex when more than 740,000 Rohingyas were forced to flee Rakhine State amid brutal military crackdowns, described by the UN as a “textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”
Among them was Mayyu Ali, a young poet and aid worker who had already begun documenting the atrocities against his people. Born into a reality where he was denied a birth certificate and barred from higher education, Ali became a voice of dissent early—writing poetry in secret and helping international journalists and NGOs tell the stories that the Myanmar state tried to erase.
“In a world where the pen is often misused,” wrote The Asian Review, “Ali has used it for the good of humanity.”
From Refugee Camps to Global Advocacy
After fleeing to Bangladesh, Ali continued his work inside the sprawling refugee camps of Cox’s Bazar, the world’s largest refugee settlement. There, he founded schools, trauma-counselling spaces, and creative outlets for Rohingya youth, determined to preserve a sense of identity and hope amidst despair.
But activism came at a cost.
His vocal criticism of both the Myanmar government and life in the camps drew the ire of the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA)—an armed insurgent group that began targeting Ali and his family. Forced into hiding for two years, he lived in fear until finally granted asylum in Canada in 2021.
Today, Ali continues to advocate for his people through literature, art, and policy engagement. He recently completed a Master’s in Global Governance from the University of Waterloo, and now serves as Director of the Rohingya Language Preservation Project—an initiative to protect the Rohingya language and cultural identity from extinction.
A Book That Demands Attention
Eradication is more than a memoir—it is a literary-political intervention, exposing the mechanisms of genocide and the long aftershocks of statelessness. It tells not only of personal loss and exile, but also of resistance: the resistance to being silenced, to having one’s story stolen.
Ali’s poetry is threaded throughout the book, lending an emotional depth to the geopolitical facts, and offering a voice to the voiceless.
“Leaving home is never easy when people contest if your home is really your home,” writes Salil Tripathi, board member of PEN International, in praise of the book. “Ali tells us what it means to be displaced, and the fragility of our identities. His words must compel action, because too many are being forced into an exile they never chose.”
Behind the Scenes
The book was originally written in French by Emilie Lopes, a journalist who has reported extensively on human rights and displacement. It was translated into English by Siba Barkataki, an academic at the English and Foreign Languages University in Hyderabad, known for her work on Francophone literature and postcolonial studies.
Together, they bring Ali’s story to a global readership, preserving the intimacy of his voice while situating it within the broader context of forced migration, ethnic cleansing, and the politics of erasure.
A Voice the World Needs to Hear
In an era of increasing refugee crises and rising xenophobia, Eradication is not just a book—it’s a wake-up call. It reminds readers that behind the statistics are human lives, that every policy of exclusion leaves scars, and that the fight for dignity often begins with the simple, radical act of telling the truth.
Mayyu Ali’s Eradication stands as one of the most important testimonies of our time—a document of pain, poetry, and perseverance in the face of history’s darkest turns.
Eradication: A Poet at the Heart of the Rohingya Genocide
By Mayyu Ali with Emilie Lopes
Translated by Siba Barkataki
Pan Macmillan India | ₹499 | Releasing 17 October 2025
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