"My upcoming album 🧚🏿♂️🧚🏿♂️ is a journey through the past, a celebration of the present, and a vision of the future. Let’s fly back to fetch it together! 🎵✨ ."
How Azawi's Sankofa album is linked to Michael Jackson's sister
Singer Azawi has entered the league of distinguished artists who share the cultural icon 'Sankofa' with her upcoming album by the same name. Sankofa is a spirit, a symbol of Afrocentric wisdom shared by Africans across the globe. Janet Jackson, Michael Jackson's sister is one of the few artists who embedded this word and sentiment in her art.
How Azawi's Sankofa album is linked to Michael Jackson's sister/Courtesy/Instgram
ADVERTISEMENT
Sankofa is a word in the Twi language of Ghana meaning “to retrieve" (literally "go back and get"). It is also a Bono Adinkra symbol represented either with a stylized heart shape or by a bird with its head turned backwards while its feet face forward carrying a precious egg in its mouth.
Sankofa is often associated with the proverb, “Se wo were fi na wosankofa a yenkyi," which translates as: "It is not wrong to go back for that which you have forgotten."
The Sankofa bird appears frequently in traditional Akan art and has also been adopted as an important symbol in an African-American and African Diaspora context to represent the need to reflect on the past to build a successful future. Taking from the past what is good and bringing it into the present in order to make positive progress through the benevolent use of knowledge.
ADVERTISEMENT
It is one of the most widely dispersed adinkra symbols, appearing in modern jewellery, tattoos, and clothing.
African-American adoption
How Azawi's Sankofa album is linked to Michael Jackson's sister/Janet Jackson Sankofa wrist tattoo
Pulse
The Sankofa image has been adopted by numerous afro-centric organizations in North America
During a building excavation in 1991, a cemetery for free and enslaved Africans was discovered in Manhattan. Over 400 remains were identified, but one coffin in particular stood out. Nailed into its wooden lid were iron tacks, 51 of which formed an enigmatic, heart-shaped design that some have interpreted as a Sankofa symbol. The site is now a national monument.
ADVERTISEMENT
Sankofa symbols are displayed all over cities like Washington, DC and New Orleans, particularly in fence designs.
Janet Jackson has a Sankofa tattoo on her inner right wrist. The symbol is also featured in her 1997 album The Velvet Rope, as well as on the supporting tour.
ADVERTISEMENT
Eyewitness? Submit your stories now via social or:
Email: news@pulse.ug
