Don't Forget Us Here: Lost and Found at Guantanamo
Mansoor Adayfi
Top 10 Best Quotes
“We knew not to see America through the filter of Guantánamo, even though most of the guards still saw us through the filter of 9/11.”
“They didn't see the world we had created and how it had brought calm and peace to the camp. They didn't want to. They only saw terrorists who needed to be detained.”
“I was shipped out of Guantánamo in the same way I was shipped in: against my will, gagged, blindfolded, hooded, earmuffed, and shackled.”
“[I]n my dreams, I could live the life they took from me, the life I hoped might still be out there. If such sweetness could take me away from the hell I lived in, how much sweeter would it be in real life? I dreamed about the day I would find out.”
“Working on these books helped me make sense of this place and what had happened to us. It was my way of processing and even reclaiming the power to tell the world who I was in my own words, not the interrogators'. They could control my life, but I wouldn't allow them to define it.”
“What they didn't understand was that the hunger strike wasn't about art or contraband or even living conditions—it was about life. Our lives.”
“We'd created a small, simple life from scraps. We had connected with each other, with guards, and with the world beyond our cells through the simple act of opening ourselves up and expressing ourselves. If that was so threatening, nothing would change their minds. But it didn't matter what they say in us. We had regained ourselves, something they couldn't take away from ourselves ever again. And we were determined to fight for it.”
“We took nothing and made something, and what is more human than that?”
“We sang and danced all night as if it were a real marriage. We began with Yemeni dancing, moved to Afghani, back to Pakistani, back to Saudi dancing... we learned the dances of all our brothers' homes and then we ended with our own new dance that brought them all together. We called it the Guantánamo dance.”
“We lived in a golden age, but it was still a hell. Even in that hell, we created small, beautiful moments that made us feel alive again.”
Except where otherwise noted, all rights reserved to the author(s) of this book (mentioned above). The content of this page serves solely as promotional material for the aforementioned book. If you enjoyed these quotes, you can support the author(s) by acquiring the full book from Amazon.
Book Keywords:
war-crimes, survival, brotherhood, writing, guantanamo-bay, america, telling-your-story, creation, hope, hunger-strike, humanity, guantánamo-bay, art, community, life, ignorance, self-definition, culture, guantánamo, agency
