Reflections on decolonizing truth-telling in the writing of Behrouz Boochani

Abstract

This article investigates former asylum seeker, Kurdish-Iranian Behrouz Boochani's efforts to decolonize truth-telling, especially in his prize-winning novel, No Friend but the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison, in which he theorizes direct links between the colonization of Indigenous Australians and Australia's treatment of refugees. No Friend but the Mountains: Writing from Manus Prison both has borders as a theme and crosses borders by utilizing disparate literary forms to great effect. I explore truth-telling in Boochani's work through the lenses of border thinking, as theorized by Gloria Anzaldúa and Walter Mignolo, and heterotopia (other-place), as theorized by Michel Foucault. Boochani describes himself as ‘A shepherd who reads Foucault’, and states that it is possible to ‘examine Manus Prison using a Foucauldian framework and apply his philosophical critique of the prison, the mental asylum and psychology.’ Border and heterotopic thinking both provide powerful tools to critique institutionalized power structures and explore understandings and approaches towards decolonization.