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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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Serialised book readings, featuring works from various genres

Serialised book readings, featuring works of non-fiction, biography, autobiography, travel, diaries, essays, humour and history

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Book of the Week: We Are Displaced: Marie Claire's story

We Are Displaced

Marie Claire's story

BBC Radio 4 - Book of the Week, We Are Displaced, Marie Claire's story

Marie Claire flees war in the Congo, but Zambia proves far from a safe haven.

When Marie Claire's family fled the war in the Congo they found their new home in Zambia was far from a safe haven.  But Marie Claire never forgot her mother's inspiring words.

Malala Yousafzai collected the stories in We Are Displaced to show that refugees are ordinary people caught up in extraordinary circumstances. 

She chose to include Marie Claire because her story had made huge impression on her.  She remembers Marie Claire not only for the story she told but also for the story she didn’t.  

"When she spoke, I felt her trauma as well as her triumph. The picture of this moment, as she revealed her past, is still in my head."

Marie Claire was born in the Congo and spent the first four years of her life on the run in the bush.  Displaced by war from the moment of her birth,  she had never known peace.  As they headed South towards Zambia, Marie Claire and her family travelled at dead of night, and slept by day beneath thorny bushes to protect themselves from wild animals.  Unfortunately Zambia proved to be far from a safe haven but Marie Claire never forgot her mother's inspiring words.   

Read by Cherrelle Skeete
Abridged and directed by Kate McAll.

A Pier production for BBC Radio 4

Book of the Week: We Are Displaced

Intelligent speech, the most insightful journalism, the wittiest comedy, the most fascinating features and the most compelling drama and readings anywhere in UK radio.

First hand refugee stories interwoven with Malala Yousafzai's own story of displacement.

First hand refugee experiences of young women from across the world interwoven with Malala Yousafzai's own story of her displacement as an Internally Displaced Person.

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