Sankofa.
The cycle of continuation that is the unifying thread between the past and the future, always
affecting one another. It is important to be unafraid of looking back as we move forward. Coming from the Akan people of Ghana, the wisdom of Sankofa has persevered through the trade of our enslaved ancestors to these lands and has been preserved through generations.
Today, Sankofa reminds us to harness our strength to look into the past to gain wisdom and understanding of our present. With this knowledge, we develop the strength to navigate our futures, changing what appears to be fixed and creating opportunities for healing, growth, and betterment in our communities.
Action is still necessary, given the current and past state of the many systems of violence that have prevented us from experiencing equity within this nation; however, the principle of Sankofa reminds us that revolutionary change is both an internal and external metamorphosis.
To know who we are is to know who and where we have come from. To study our ancestors is to liberate
ourselves from the chains of oppression that have discouraged us from daring to become more than
what these systems of oppression have told us we could be.
Sankofa is the remembrance that allows us to honor our breath, our lives, our hearts, our roots, and future
generations. This is how we experience the fullness of what it means to exist in harmony with one another
and the earth that sustains us.
