I Will Not Grow Downward - Memoir Of An Eritrean Refugee: My Long And Perilous Flight From Africa's Hermit Kingdom

Yikealo was a young father when his government rounded him up off of the street of his hometown and sent him to one of the deadliest places on the planet to learn how to kill. It would take years of difficult and often heartbreaking sacrifice just to regain his freedom... and more than a decade of uncertainty just for a chance to see his family again.

"As for walls and fences to pen us in, there are none in this place. We are free to leave, if we choose, but there is nowhere for us to go and almost certain death for anyone who tries."

Yikealo Neab was born into a bloody conflict his grandparents started and grew to adulthood watching the same conflict take his friends and threaten his children. After being forcibly conscripted and sent to one of the most inhospitable places on earth, the Danakil Depression, where more than just the extreme heat and old Russian landmines can kill, he must face the very real possibility that, should he manage to survive, he might never see his family again.

I Will Not Grow Downward is a heartbreaking memoir of struggle and determination, of loss and exile... and ultimately of redemption. Yikealo's story is a powerful reminder of the strength of the human spirit to endure, particularly of those living in violence and oppression and those fleeing from those who use them to control and remain in power. It offers students of contemporary East African history an exceptionally rare glimpse inside the highly secretive and brutally repressive regime known as Africa's Hermit Kingdom, but it is also a gift and an inspiration for anyone searching for proof that faith and perseverance can overcome even the most insurmountable of obstacles.

I Will Not Grow Downward is part of the Dreams of Freedom collection, stories of resilience from Eritrea, the small war-torn nation known as the North Korea of Africa.