One afternoon in Laventille, Akeal Hosein was walking outside with friends when a red light appeared on one of their shirts. They spent minutes trying to brush it off. Then they understood what it was. They ran.
Laventille is a neighbourhood in Port of Spain, Trinidad, divided by a single road. On one side, the Muslim area. On the other, Rasta City — territory controlled by a gang called Six. For years the road between them was a war zone. The buildings still carry it: walls riddled with bullet holes, windows blown out and never repaired, houses burned and abandoned. At its worst, by local count, five or six bodies dropped in a day.
“Gangs would war like 100 feet apart,” Hosein told ESPN. “That’s the separation of different turfs. You’re here, I’m right down there and we’re having a beef. You could be caught up in a stray at any point of time.”
He grew up inside all of this. It was just there, he said. Everything right around you.
Once, he pulled out of a match for Trinidad without explanation — just sent a voice note as the gunshots in the background offered the reason.