Adinkra Symbol Library · Code 03 · Memory
Sankofa
“Go back and get it”
- Pronunciation
- sang-ko-fah
- Represents
- Learning from the past, return
- Origin
- Akan, Ghana
The meaning
What does Sankofa mean?
Sankofa comes from three Twi words: san (to return), ko (to go) and fa (to fetch). Together they mean “go back and get it.” As an Adinkra symbol, Sankofa represents learning from the past: returning for what was left behind, and carrying it forward to shape what comes next.
It is the third of the ten Codes of Legacy. After spirit and endurance comes memory: the decision to reach back for where you come from.
In Akan tradition
Cultural origins
Adinkra symbols were created by the Akan, and especially the Asante, of present-day Ghana. They were stamped onto cloth with carved calabash stamps and dye, and each one carries a proverb, a value or a teaching.
Sankofa is drawn in two forms: a bird moving forward with its head turned back, taking an egg from its back, and a stylized heart. Both carry the same Akan proverb: Sɛ wo werɛ fi na wosan kɔfa a, yɛnkyiri. “It is not taboo to go back for what you forgot.”
The symbol also lives in the African diaspora. At the African Burial Ground in Lower Manhattan, the resting place of Africans and African descendants in colonial New York, archaeologists found a coffin lid decorated with a heart-shaped pattern of tacks. The National Park Service describes it as perhaps a Sankofa. No one can know for certain what the mourners intended, but the heart-shaped Sankofa now appears throughout the national monument.
Today Sankofa is one of the most widely recognized Adinkra symbols, carried on cloth, in architecture, and in the names of schools and institutions across the diaspora.
Our reading today
What it teaches
For a people whose names, languages and histories were interrupted by enslavement, Sankofa is permission. What was taken from view is still ours to recover.
It is not nostalgia. You do not go back to stay; you go back to retrieve, then move forward with more of yourself intact. To wear it is a reminder that looking back and moving forward are the same motion.
The founder’s interpretation · Wisdom in the Rearview
Today, I am a bridge between the past and the future.
Nakia Duncan, Wisdom Without Words
In her book, Nakia calls Sankofa “wisdom in the rearview”: turning your gaze back not with regret or longing, but with excitement and intention. It is also why Sankofa became the Adinkra Charms logo. Her reading is a contemporary one, built on the traditional meaning.
Questions
Frequently asked
Why are there two Sankofa symbols?
Sankofa appears as a bird with its head turned back and as a stylized heart. Both carry the same proverb. The bird illustrates the teaching most literally; the heart is the form often stamped on cloth. Our Return Bracelet uses the heart.
Is Sankofa about living in the past?
No. The bird keeps flying forward even as it looks back. Sankofa is about retrieving what is valuable from the past so it can guide the present, not about staying there.
Can I wear Adinkra symbols if I’m not Ghanaian?
Adinkra symbols are Akan heritage that also lives across the African diaspora. Wear them with knowledge of what they mean and where they come from. That respect is the point of this library.
Who is it a meaningful gift for?
Someone reconnecting with where they come from: a family historian, a graduate returning home, someone planning a reunion or a first trip to Ghana, or an elder who has carried the family’s stories.
Carry the symbol
Wear Sankofa
Return Necklace
Return Bracelet
Sacred Circle Medallion
CZ Mini Tag Necklace
Explore further
Continue the story
What We Carry Forward · The Letters
What I Didn’t Know I Was Carrying
Nakia on a college classroom, a familiar symbol, and choosing a logo.
Sources
Nakia Duncan, Wisdom Without Words: The Modern Guide to Adinkra Symbols (2023), pp. 291–294.
National Park Service, African Burial Ground National Monument, park brochure.
Warren R. Perry, Jean Howson and Barbara A. Bianco, eds., New York African Burial Ground Archaeology Final Report, vol. 1 (Howard University, 2006), via American Social History Project.
“Sankofa,” Adinkra Symbols & Meanings.