Personal Narrative

Have you ever felt death near you? One dark night, I was home with my entire family in 2010 watching programs on the Smart TV and suddenly I felt that something was about to happen. It's like the feeling of saying “something isn’t right”. At a very young age I thought that the world would always be on my side.

Something isn't right.

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Growing up, I was playing along with toys, I had no idea that I would develop such fear in my early life.

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My father is a person who doesn’t talk that much. He’s a person who would rather put things in action than talk. He met the previous leader of Ivory coast and other folks, prior to the attack.

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During that time, another person took power by using violence to kill those who had a relationship with the previous president, including my father, but my father survived.

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I was really scared because the rebels were next to our house killing others. I vividly remember that when my family and I were supposed to leave the house, I saw a dead woman on the streets, which I can’t forget. She was wearing a black top and blue jeans. It was traumatizing.

My father took courage and told my brothers and I that we were going to live, not die. My fear somehow faded as he talked to us.

We finally left the house to Nigeria for 7 months. If my father did not tell us those things, I would probably not be able to go out of that house in my hometown.

When I was still in middle school, I never thought of something that was beyond my age because I was still a kid. As I gradually progressed in life, I came to understand how life itself was. In Ivory Coast 2010, there was supposed to be a presidential election which had to occur in November. During that shift, the actual president decided to run again for president, and the candidates did not have any dilemma with it, but one particular candidate -- Alassane Dramane Ouattara -- decided that he was going to be president. He wanted that position so much that he would kill thousands of people, which he actually did.

I executed thousands of people to be whom I am today!

He also decided to take the previous president captive and his companions, including my father. We weren’t sure about it until it was said in the news. When the rebels came to our neighborhood, they mostly killed everyone that was living, so we decided to hide in the house for a certain period of time.

Previous President

When they knocked on our door I was frightened, but we were very quiet that they thought nobody lived there.

After a week, we took the initiative to leave the house because it wasn’t safe for us any longer. My father prayed for us and we left the house. When we were walking in the middle of the street the rebels were aligned side by side watching us leave but they did not do anything to us, which was God’s protection. At first my father’s friend came to pick us up somewhere in order to go to his mansion. We stayed there for at least a month. When the time came my father told us that we would be going to Nigeria and the next day we left. I made friends there and to this day we are still in touch. We stayed there for 7 months and decided to come back after the crisis ended.

Nigeria

Ivory Coast