Those We Throw Away Are Diamonds: A Refugee’s Search for Home

Mondiant Nshimiyimana Dogon is an author, human rights activist, and refugee ambassador. Born into a Congolese Tutsi family in Bagogwe tribe in North Kivu province, at age three he was forced to leave his home village, Bikenke, because of the Rwandan genocide against Tutsis that spilled over into the Democratic Republic of Congo. Since 1996 he has lived in refugee camps. Dogon holds a BA from the University of Rwanda and an MA in international education from New York University. Jenna Krajeski is a reporter for The Fuller Project whose writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and The Nation, among other publications. She is the coauthor of Nobel laureate Nadia Murad's memoir, The Last Girl, and was a Knight-Wallace Fellow at the University of Michigan.

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 worldOne 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 flight: 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."

SEARING, DEVASTATING NARRATIVE Dogon's story is beyond harrowing, born as he was in the midst of the genocide of Tutsis. Unimaginable violence and poverty followed his family into the UN refugee camps, and he was jailed and then had to become a child solider in Congo before he turned 12. But Dogon's incredible will and spirit never disappear in this incredible story of survival.INTIMATE LENS ON A GLOBAL CRISIS There are more global displaced persons now than at any time since the conclusion of WWII. Dogon gives voice to both their collective suffering and their shared dreams.GLOBAL ADVOCATE FOR HIS CAUSE Dogon has longstanding partnerships with numerous nonprofits (including Alight) that work with refugee communities and are eager support the book, and he currently works in corporate social responsibility at the dtx company, a venture capital firm founded by Tim Armstrong-a mentor to Dogon.TALENTED TEAM Dogon is writing with the extraordinarily talented Jenna Krajeski, New Yorker contributor and co-author of Nobel laureate Nadia Murad's memoir THE LAST GIRL.