LaoAmericans

“Laos has been in the middle of one war after another, since the day I was born,” he explained, “it was just a part of life.” Onkeo was born in 1947, two years after the end of the Second World War, and the start of the First Indochina War.

Don Xai (Xai Island) is an island in the Mekong River, in the southern part of the country of Laos. It is officially located in the province of Champasak, in the Soukhouma district. For most Westerners it is a world away, still unspoiled by modernity.

“Elephants are coming! Elephants are coming!” Hundreds of young voices shout in chorus, the excitement palpable. But these are not just any elephants—they are four-legged libraries! In Laos, the Asian elephant has long been a national symbol.

She arrived that day – the elephant that came to sit upon my chest. The weight showed up the very second I heard the screaming lady running toward me from the river. It felt like a jolt to my body, as though someone threw a brick that struck my chest and pierced the skin.

One of the most important aspects of “I Little Slave” is Bounsang’s vivid depiction of his experience in the prison camps, which was officially referred to by the deceptive euphemism “Seminar”.