Author Archives: Mansoor Adayfi

About Mansoor Adayfi

Mansoor Adayfi, originally from Yemen, is a writer and former detainee in the Guantánamo Bay Prison Camp who was held for over fourteen years without charge before being transferred to Serbia. His essays have appeared in the New York Times’ Modern Love column and Op-Ed page, the edited collection Witnessing Torture (Palgrave 2018), and the “Ode to the Sea” art exhibition catalogue. He also contributed to radio documentaries which aired on BBC radio, a CBC podcast, and NPR. In 2019 he was awarded the Richard J. Margolis Award for nonfiction writing that illuminates issues of social justice. His memoir of his time at Guantánamo, Don’t Forget Us Here, was published in 2021 by Hachette Books.

The Beautiful Guantánamo

Abstract: In “The Beautiful Guantánamo,” Mansoor Adayfi, who was imprisoned for fourteen years there without charge, refutes the narratives and images carefully curated by the US government about its captives. Adayfi describes how men and boys speaking eighteen different languages and representing fifty nationalities shared their different cultures with one another and, through communal experiences, generated their own distinctive Guantánamo culture from 2002 to 2010. Beginning with the fear, estrangement, and abuse prisoners experienced upon their arrival, the author details how forming a common language Continue reading → Continue reading →