sankofa

Sankofa is a word in Twi, the language of the Akan people of Ghana and Côte d'Ivoire. It combines san ('to return'), ko ('to go'), and fa ('to take'). The literal meaning is 'go back and get it.' The concept is encoded in one of the most recognized Adinkra symbols: a bird with its feet planted forward and its head turned backward, an egg balanced on its back. The message is that the past holds things you need for the future, and retrieving them is not retreat but wisdom.

Adinkra symbols originated among the Akan peoples and were traditionally stamped onto cloth used in funerals and other ceremonial occasions. Each symbol encodes a proverb or philosophical concept. Sankofa is among the most widely used. The associated proverb, 'Se wo were fi na wosankofa a yenkyi,' translates roughly as 'It is not wrong to go back for that which you have forgotten.' The emphasis is on the word 'wrong' — other cultures might call looking backward nostalgic or regressive. Akan philosophy insists it is necessary.

The symbol and concept crossed the Atlantic through the slave trade. Enslaved Akan people carried their cultural knowledge to the Caribbean and the Americas. In the 20th century, the African diaspora rediscovered sankofa as part of a broader reclamation of West African heritage. The 1993 film Sankofa, directed by Ethiopian-born filmmaker Haile Gerima, brought the concept to international attention through the story of an African American woman transported back to a slave plantation.

Today, sankofa appears on university buildings, in museum exhibitions, on jewelry, and in curriculum frameworks across the African diaspora. The University of Ghana uses it. Howard University references it. It has become shorthand for the principle that understanding where you came from is not optional — it is the foundation of where you're going.