Did We Survive Torture?

Abstract

Adayfi, a survivor of torture at the US Guantánamo Bay Naval Base, considers the difference between staying alive through and surviving the experience of enforced disappearance, rendition, and torture. He explains that although he is alive, he is not sure he survived: parts of him are irreparably damaged, and, he writes, “I am still trying to escape.” In this essay, Adayfi explores the role of artistic production as a means of self-expression, self-preservation, and witnessing. In detailing the extraordinary restraints on personal expression within Guantánamo and captives’ responses to those restraints, such as using tea bags for ink and painting while being shackled to the floor, Adayfi simultaneously attests to the challenges and importance to survival of self-expression in aesthetic modes.