Muladhara: Ivory Coast

For as far back as I can remember, there was war. I was raised in it. We ran from it. Though we could not escape it. I remember them, my mother and father. They called me Jibril, but during the few moments of peace, of serenity, they smiled and watched me, calling me Foday. Jabril Foday Sama, a name I now fully embrace, for it is who I was, who I was meant to be, and who I have become today. I no longer hide in the shadows, no longer run from my fears. There was a time when terrors of my past captured every waking moment, where I remained alone in the darkness of my mind, afraid. Fear lived within each fiber of my being. It was all surreal, completely unimaginable during those horrific days of my youth, and the unsettling, nightmarish moment when my family was taken. I remember them, their faces, their embraces, the scents of warm skin, but what lingered were the sounds, the screams, and the red that scattered our nomadic home.