Sankofa: Black To The Future—Remembering how to fly — Àdisà

Sankofa is an Akan adinkra symbol that represents the notion of going back to fetch what was lost. Among its more prominent depictions is that of a bird moving forward in preparation for flight while looking back with an egg in its mouth. Wade Nobles has suggested that much of what is useful in African (American) culture is often overlooked or misunderstood due of our inability to understand the role and function of symbolism in African (American) culture.

The beauty of symbols, aside from their aesthetic grace, reside their power to convey multiple meanings, their ability to speak to and reveal multiple truths that can be convergent or divergent, their ability to engage in an act of reciprocity—the more understanding we bring to the symbol, the more information and knowledge it reveals to us. Much like these curvatures we call letters, symbols in the form of artistic representation form meanings individually and collectively when placed along side of other symbols for words and the words depending on how they are arranged tell various kinds of stories. In order for one to read the story at the most basic level one must possess the skill of literacy.

Often in African iconography a bird represents flight, ascendency— the ability to rise. In ancient KMT (Egypt), for example, the Bennu bird was a symbolic representation of the sun, creation, rebirth. With the depiction of Sankofa (below) we have a bird with and egg in its mouth. The egg represents the primordial source of creation, the point at which both potential and kinetic energy exist as one reality, as divine possibility or Àṣẹ. 

In other words, the bird and the egg are not separate essences, they are merely two different expressions of the same essence, spirit, moments pregnant with divine possibility. Just as a watermelon seed is a watermelon that has yet to express its destiny, to ascend. The bird with the egg in its mouth looking back forms a circle, representing the notion that the past, present and future are not separate moments, but a continuum in which the past, present and future, just as the bird and the egg, are all one. This conception of time can best be expressed not in terms of linear time (notion the even some elements of western physics like quantum mechanics are slowly beginning to rethink) or a flat circle, but a spiral with a moving center that is not obedient to linear notions of time.

The bird is not simply looking back at an egg, it is looking back at the very moment of its creation: It is engaged in a conversation with the divine that comprises not just its personal past but a collective past—all the events that has made its birth possible—as well as its present and its future, all of which helps locate itself and remember its destiny. And it is in the Sankofa bird remembering its personal and collective destiny that it remembers who it is—a bird—why it is here and what it was meant to do—soar—which in turn inspires it to flight, to ascend. It is in this sense that looking back is actually looking forward.

As precept for human understanding the message of Sankofa is clear: We come here with a divine purpose—a destiny—but along the way life knocks us around a bit, we can become grounded, lose our confidence and lose sight of our destiny, of who we are, of whose we are and why we are here. And it is in looking back (forward) and engaging in a conversation with the divine about our purpose that we are reminded of who we are and can begin to ascends while keeping our focus on the source. But some of us need help remembering.

This is where Black Psychologists as healers can be powerfully efficacious because Sankofa also operates as psychological precept--that elements of the past hold keys to present behavior that can unlock future possibilities that free us to have the courage to try and fly. In a sense Black Psychologists (as different from Black folks trained in the discipline of psychology) serve as a kind of secular priesthood, engaged in the spirit work of reigniting that divine spark in the souls of Black folk, to help us remember and fly.

The goal of Àṣẹ is to explore, inspire and illuminate paths and possibilities for us to consider and pursue as a community in an effort to complete our spiritual, mental and physical emancipation. We hope to do this through an exploration of art and ideas, popular culture and politics, public health and social and behavioral science, social ecology and spirituality and the fertile connections that lie at the intersections of Black life, love, and liberation.

It is my hope that over the next year this blog will serve as a communal space where we remember that the goal is help our people move closer to achieving spiritual and mental liberation from the legacy of white supremacy, that we remember that the most essential role of a healer is to first do the work of healing thyself even as we work to help others find their healing space, that we regularly remind each other in our interactions of our ability to fly, and in the process move our ancestors to smile pure sunshine.

In life, love and liberation,

Àdisà