Bonjou! Kijan ou ye? hello! How are you?

Adamu Akande is a nineteen-year-old African-American male, a native of Hathian, with Nigerian (father) and Haitian (mother) immigrant parents. His father, Ade Akande was a medical technician working with the UN and assigned to Haiti after the 1994 earthquake. There Ade met Adamu's mother, Madeline Ambroise, who was a nurse at the hospital in Port-de-Paix. After gang violence around 2000 which Ade somehow got mixed up in, the two fled to the USA, settling down in Hathian, in Louisiana.

His father found a job working in a pharmacy while Madeline worked at HGH. To begin with life wasn't awful for the family. With two incomes the family was almost middle-class, and Ade and Madeline decided to start a family here. His two older brothers were Iyaad and Junior. Adamu never meant to have been conceived but poor quality contraceptives and Adamu became the last of Ade and Madeline's three sons, born in February 2004.

When Katrina hit in August 2005 it took everything the family had. Madeline was badly injured by their collapsing house, losing her job, and when the insurance claim was rejected on a technicality the family found themselves homeless. They got back on their feet, at least to some extent, but Ade did it only by stealing drugs, painkillers and anything else that he could sell, from the pharmacy where he worked. Ade saved a part of his loot to help his wife but all he managed to do was get Madeline addicted to Fentanyl.

The family was struggling now. Trying to create structure and a hope for the future that she had felt as a child in Haiti Madeline found a Voodoo ounfò in the area and started bringing the family along to their rit. Adamu enjoyed the feeling of community amongst the people there and began to learn a little Haitian Creole. Building upon that as he grew up Adamu also found focus through playing football where he showed real promise as a quarterback even at a very young age. The voodoo gave him a sense of self and purpose, the football gave him a sense of control.

Ade had always been a bit of a drinker, but after losing everything the drinking just got worse. Ade had been abusive before, but he began to take it out on his family and the kids would end up hiding in out in the yard or on the street as Ade would come home drunk, screaming about his life and how the world was conspiring against him. When the school football team heard about the situation, they tried to intervene and get Adamu and his family out. But when Ade threatened to beat his wife senseless, the HPD didn't seem to care, and the family remained stuck in the same situation.

His mother's drug abuse worsened as a consequence, the Akande's home life continued to deteriorate. In 2014, Adamu lost his oldest brother, Iyaad, to a drive-by shooting. The HPD said it was nobody's fault... just one of those things and, lacking a witness or any significant physical evidence, they declined to investigate it any further. It was too much for Madeline and she died of an overdose the following year.

After his mother's death the family fell apart. The middle brother, Junior, joined a gang and disappeared in 2015. In 2016 the police got a tip-off and busted Ade. He was convicted and sent to prison for ten years, and so Adamu was left on his own, aged 12. He entered foster care but remained in Hathian. His footballing skills were outstanding and although the cast of players around him wasn't great Adamu had his Hathian High school team playing well enough to win the district during his final three years at school from 2019 to 2021. Foster care wasn't brilliant for Adamu, but it wasn't the awful mess that it was for other children, plus Adamu was too well known to suffer abuse and neglect. With support from the high school and under-the-table support from college recruiters Adamu was seen as a cash-cow.

Academically Adamu was doing okay, with grades that were okay. At school fe elected to focus on sceines, sespecially chemistry, hoping that his parent's legitimate careers could offer some goal if football didn't pan out, but football was still looking like his best option. Modelling his passing and strong running game after players like Michael Vick and Randall Cunningham he was a top College football prospect and, not surprisingly, got a full scholarship to LSU in 2022. He was something of a minor celebrity in Hathian given his career trajectory at that point.

At LSU Adamu looked to major in chemical engineering, again inspired by his parent’s dedication to the medical profession. In the 2022 season Adamu played his freshman year, mostly from the bench, as the Tigers eventually lost the SEC Championship game 50-30 to Georgia. But Adamu hadn't even suited up for that game. The reasons for this were never made public but at the end of the academic year Adamu's scholarship to LSU was voided.

For Adamu his football had been his future. Without a scholarship he had no hope of affording college and so he packed a bag and slipped back into Hathian, where he had once lived. He wanted to avoid drama but knew that eventually the rumors of his return would get out. He enrolled at Columtreal University, aiming to at least continue his studies in chemistry. Without a scholarship he'd have to find work and knowing that it would be unlikely he'd find something related to his degree area he'd have to scout around the local businesses to see if any were offering a job. But his main focus was to get back into football. CU didn't have a Division 1 team but playing football for them might offer an opportunity to shine and maybe get another shot at playing in a great College team elsewhere with a glimmer then of getting a shot at an NFL career.