This work struck a visceral chord in me, taking me back to my own elementary school days in Mauritania, then a French colony. The French were determined to destroy our culture, our way of life, our very identities, insisting that we were not who we knew ourselves to be. Thus, they forced us to speak Only French. My birth language is Fulfulde and I and my fellow students were pitted against each other, trying to “catch” one another anywhere, anytime speaking their native language. Whoever retained the dreaded wooden token, the last one to be caught speaking our own languages outside of class, was called out at the beginning of each day and physically punished and humiliated before us all. We were being taught to hate and to deny our very own birthright.