Marigolds. Sankofa. Remembering. Forgetting. Before your existence. Photo albums. Scrapbooks. Digging through years of Kodak envelopes. Embarrassing childhood stories. Boxes of lined paper and crayons. Ancestral memories. The understanding that reveals itself only in retrospect. History repeating itself in you.
In the Akan Twi and Fante language, Sankofa translates to:
san - to return
ko - to go
fa - to fetch, to seek and take.
Sankofa reminds us that the way forward requires us to look at our past. It asks us not to forget. As someone who is usually not very nostalgic, this is a lesson I am still trying to learn. In the past, we can find rich stories and life lessons that can inform the present.
Visually, Sankofa is represented as a bird reaching around to grab an egg on its back. This precious egg is, of course, the future.
All video footage in Summation is from Pexels.
How do we experience our memories? Are they set in stone?
Apparently, they aren't.
According to
Donna Bridge, “Memories aren’t static. If you remember something in the context of a new environment and time, or if you are even in a different mood, your memories might integrate the new information.” That means our memories will always be in conversation with whatever we are experiencing.
So I asked two good friends to answer this question: "What are your favorite memories?"
