Blood at the Root

by LaDarrion Williams

They say love is like the sea. Because of its vastness, we really don’t understand it fully. But we know it moves with a rhythm, and it’s deeper than anything in this world. It’s endless, and it always comes back to shore.

“It’s the periwinkle flower,” Professor Kumale says. “It’s a symbol of remembrance of the enslaved ancestors. They used it to record and locate their unmarked graves.

“The first nation to actually abolish slavery was Haiti in the Haitian revolutionary war in 1804.”

“The Haitian Revolution was a successful insurrection led by Toussaint Louverture. It was the only revolution or rebellion that led Haiti to be free from slavery. It was against white supremacy. Against all that they’d ever known. That is the real reason why it’s not taught.

we accept the love we think we deserve,