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| A young Rohingya refugee reads ‘Exodus: Between Genocide and Me’ by Rohingya poet Mayyu Ali at a refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar of Bangladesh. (Photo: New Ali) |
The river separates Arakan and
Bengal
The river that Rohingya startle
to hear
The crossing is to escape or to
die
Where many are swallowed alive
The East becomes a roaring
inferno
The West is world’s largest
makeshift camp
Some leave their limbs behind,
bodies are carried
Others cross with bullets
embedded
A bullet in the chest is bigger
than a heart
A body falls into the water
Another dances on the riverbank
The world just watches on
Whilst criminals erase their
marks
The river cradles irrefutable
evidence
Whilst the human solidarity is
a lie
Waves bear witness to what
victims suffer. (The
Naf River)
This heart-rending poem
embodies the agony of one of the world’s most persecuted minorities — Rohingya
Muslims. And it has been composed by a young Rohingya poet in exile.
Mayyu Ali, 28,
lives with his parents at Balukhali refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar of Bangladesh.
He is on the front line of a cultural resurgence among the beleaguered community.
Born and brought up at Maungdaw in Rakhine (Arakan) state of Myanmar, Ali studied for a BA degreee in English at the University of Sittwe in the state capital before sectarian violence in June 2012 stopped his education in the second year, forcing him to work for an aid agency in Maungdaw.
His family fled following the Aug. 25, 2017, military crackdown. “My home and village were burned down by the Burmese security forces and my parents and I escaped to Bangladesh for our lives,” Ali told UCA News.
