Sankofa

The Sankofa bird is a symbol, but also occurs other West African groups in the religion of the Akan (Ivory Coast and Ghana) and is learning from the past for a better future.

The bird has his head turned to his back to catch his egg. In the Ashanti (Ghana) Sankofa means something like " when you see into the past, you realize the future". The memory and the ability to draw on traditions, is to counteract the forgetting and give new options for the present and the future. The eminent historian Albert Adu Boahen Ghanaian named his publishing company, in which he published critical works on African history, after this symbolic beings.

This symbol plays a role that had form a tradition for the Black Freedom Movement of the 1960s and in the philosophy of Maulana Karenga Kawaida. About the African American community, this approach has since been transported back to Europe and Africa.

For example, several African and anti- racist educators the symbol in their work, as Aeeshah Ababio - Clottey and Kokomon Clottey in their anti-racism training " Beyond Fear ", the initiative Black German in their SANKOFA - holiday villages or the Ethiopian teacher Ellani Tedla in their educational program " Sankofa: African Thought and Education ".

Also in the culture is often taken to Sankofa reference. The eponymous film by Haile Gerima (1993 ) focuses on the African history of colonialism and slavery. The jazz singer Cassandra Wilson sings it on "Blue Light 'til Dawn" and a British film collective has been named after him. In addition, he is now also marketed in esoteric circles.