Re-Presenting the Rohingya Genocide through Literature: A Study of Exodus: Between Genocide and Me by Mayyu Ali as an Alternate History

Abstract

The Rohingya genocide in Myanmar is an ongoing crisis of ethnic cleansing that has recently come into international recognition. The hostility displayed by the Myanmar government towards the Rohingyas is based on the narrative that the Rohingyas are illegal Bengali immigrants who arrived in the country during the colonial rule. However, the Rohingyas have completely refuted thisnarrative as a misrepresentation of their history. This paper intends to look at the role of literature in challenging the hegemonic discourse, through the analysis of Exodus: Between Genocide and Me, a collection of poetry, written by the Rohingya refugee writer, Mayyu Ali. The paper tries to read this collection as micro-narrativesthatprovide an opportunity for the Rohingyas to re-present their version of the story as an alternate history and break the hegemony of the government narrative as the only history of Myanmar. The paper also aims to retrace the Rohingya version of history to understand the reasons behind the persecution of Rohingyas in the postcolonial Myanmar.