An artistic work that symbolises the importance of learning lessons from our past. A beautifully carved mythic bird.
Sankofa is an African concept meaning we should retrieve things of value from our knowledge of the past
The word is derived from the words:
SAN (return)
KO (go)
FA (look, seek and take)
What Is Sankofa?
Sankofa is a principle derived from the Akan people of Ghana that one should remember the past to make positive progress in the future. The Akan tribe of Ghanaian Africans is part of the larger Ashanti (or Asante) group of people from West Africa.
The word Sankofa literally means “to retrieve” in the Akan Twi language, but the meaning of Sankofa is more broadly expanded upon in this Akan proverb: “Se wo were fi na wosankofa a yenkyi” (translated from the Akan language to mean “it is not taboo to go back and fetch what you forgot”). The power of Sankofa centers around this: to know history and your heritage is to know your current self, the world around you, and how to better both.
Sankofa has inspired both activism and art. African American studies and Africana studies often reference the spirit and substance of Sankofa; and filmmakers, musicians, and artists have used the term and its related imagery in their work. From its Ghanaian roots, the concept and its symbols have become pan-African and even worldwide in their scope of influence.
There are two main Sankofa symbols also known as Bono Adinkra symbols: one is a mythical bird turning its head backward to eat a precious egg and the latter is a stylized heart. People often manufacture the Sankofa bird as a gold weight or emblazon the Sankofa heart shape on art projects or even their bodies as Sankofa tattoos. The latter also appears on many gates in America, in New York in particular.
Janellemonae:
The uniqueness and rigorous art of the Sankofa bird prompts the most important human questions.
HOW WILL YOU USE YOUR LIFE?
- Do Africans cultivate global citizens and critical thinkers with expansive worldviews prepared to provide leadership in a rapidly changing world?
What the Africa most requires now is the kind of education that fosters love for Africans, that develops their character, provides an intellectual basis for the realization of peace and empowers African learners to contribute to and improve society.
The need for our educational systems is to create a new kind of Africans who are comfortable with change, who enjoys change, who are able to improvise, who are able to face with confidence, strength, and courage a situation of which they absolutely no forewarning.”
Our education system needs to offer a supportive environment for both individual and collaborative creative work.
Janellemonae: How can Africa break through the problem that i feel will never end?
TSASI: Use the problem as an opportunity to bring out the full potential of the African people.
When we’ve experienced long-standing challenges, it’s easy to feel worn down or impatient for things to take a turn for the better. But it’s amid such challenges that we can remind ourselves that Nichiren Buddhism exists for precisely such situations.
As an example, Nichiren wrote the following to the lay nun Myoichi, a widowed mother who had been struggling with serious challenges for some time:
He said :Those who believe in the Lotus Sutra are as if in winter, but winter always turns to spring. Never, from ancient times on, has anyone seen or heard of winter turning back to autumn.
Nor have we ever heard of a believer in the Lotus Sutra who turned into an ordinary person. The sutra reads, “If there are those who hear the Law, then no one will fail to attain Buddhahood.” (“Winter Always Turns to Spring,” The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin, vol. 1, p. 536).
While Africans had experienced continual persecution, including colonialism, slave trade, economic oppression, oppression that would be extended to our grandchildren if they don’t change something. Unfortunately, you continue blaming the West for what Africans are experiencing.
TSASI: What Africa is experiencing now is the result of what happened then. Though the West is still to be blamed, Africans themselves reproduce what the West did.
The West are to be blamed but still, Africans reproduce their strategies by internalizing it, by keeping your feelings or issues inside and not sharing your concerns with the West.
TSASI:
I would like to speak about an important point with regard to our attitude towards the West through the analogy of mirrors.
In Buddhism, mirrors have a wide variety of meanings and are often used to explain and illustrate various doctrines. Here, I would like to briefly discuss an example related to our attitude towards the West.
Nichiren Daishonin writes:
“A bronze mirror will reflect the form of a person but it will not reflect that person’s mind. The Lotus Sutra, however, reveals not only the person’s form but that person’s mind as well. And it reveals not only the mind; it reflects, without the least concealment, that person’s past actions and future as well.” (WND-2, 619)
Just as a mirror is indispensable for grooming our face and hair, we need a mirror of life that allows us to look closely at ourselves and our lives if we are to build Africa’s economy that would lead Africans to prosperity and a happier and more beautiful existence.
Janellemonae: Then we shouldn’t really blame the West whenever we think about Africa’s development. We should not think of borrowing money from them to build a tourist destination. We should rather think of developing Africa for Africans, then whoever visits Africa will be happy to see Africa’s beauty.
TSASI: Originally, every person’s life is a brilliantly shining mirror. Differences arise depending on whether one polishes this mirror. A polished mirror corresponds to the life state of the Buddha, whereas a tarnished mirror corresponds to that of an ordinary unenlightened being.
Chanting Nam-myoho-renge-kyo is how we polish our lives. Not only do we undertake this practice ourselves, we also endeavour to teach others about the Mystic Law so that they can make the mirror of their lives shine brightly, too. In this respect, we could be called master “mirror polishers” in the realm of life. Even though people work hard at polishing their appearance, they often tend to neglect polishing their lives. While they fret over blemishes on their face, they remain unconcerned about blemishes in the depths of their lives.
Take the example of the BlackRock.
BlackRock is one of the world’s leading providers of investment, advisory and risk management solutions.
As a global investment manager they are fiduciary to their clients, their purpose at BlackRock is to help everyone experience financial well-being. Since 1999, they’ve been a leading provider of financial technology, and their clients turn to them for the solutions they need when planning for their most important goals.
The majority stocks in all the corporations that ruled our world are owned by the investment Funds, which is where the Billionaires stock their money.
The biggest Blackrock, the Second biggest Vanguard. Last year Blackrock, was $6 trillion Dollars, but they Lost 30% with one case of Monsanto’s roundup ready up Cause Cancer.
It’s a Californian case of Dwayne Johnson and the Jury ruled that “Roundup Ready is the pesticide in the herbicide that kills everything. But it has been known by the “World Health Organisation to be a killer organisation.
Monsanto attacked W.H.O for speaking the truth over the matter. But a Califonian Jury had ruled and the day the ruling came, Bayer lost 35%. Basically, they are the life lost today, exploding with fictions of financial multiplication, with rent collection.
There is a Japanese folk tale about a small village where no one had a mirror. In those days, mirrors were priceless. A man, returning from a trip to the capital, handed his wife a mirror as a souvenir. It was the first time for her to see one. Looking into the mirror, she exclaimed: “Who on earth is this woman? You must’ve brought a girl back with you from the capital!” And so a big fight ensued.
Though this is an amusing anecdote, many people become angry or distraught over phenomena that are actually nothing but a reflection of their own lives, their state of mind and the causes that they have created.
Like the wife in the story who exclaims, “Who on earth is this woman?” they do not realise their own folly.
Ignorant of the mirror of life of Buddhism, such people cannot see themselves as they really are. And ignorant of their own true self, they naturally cannot give proper guidance and direction to others, nor can they discern the true nature of occurrences in society.
TSASI: So now that we’ve developed the Sankofo’s vision, what is our plan of action?
Thank you Janellemonae.
