For our first film screening of 2022, we are happy to present “Sankofa”.

“Sankofa” is an expression of the Akan people which means “to go back and get it.”  It is often associated with the Adinkra image of a bird, standing feet forward but whose head is turned backwards. Ethiopian filmmaker Haile Gerima’s 1993 film, “Sankofa” calls all present-day children of the Diaspora to a deeper appreciation of the ordeals their ancestors endured in the Americas; particularly those of us who seem to have forgotten or are simply unaware of our origins.

The film tells the story of an African American model named Mona played by Oyafunmike Ogunlano, who is in Ghana on the Gold Coast doing a photoshoot.  Her shoot starts on the beach but takes her to Cape Coast Castle, one of forty forts in West Africa where captives were held before enduring the Middle Passage and being sold and made to slave on cotton, sugar and tobacco plantations in the Americas. Mona seems disrespectfully oblivious to this fact, but not for long. Something extraordinary happens and she is transported through time, becoming one such slave. “I am not African, I am American!” she screams as white slavers hold her down, strip her clothes off and brand her. What happens next is an unvarnished depiction of life on a Louisiana sugar plantation. Gerima seeks to engulf the senses in this film, through evocative shots and a hypnotic score. The result is a cinematic poem about the will to survive and remain human in the face of genocidal violence.

Please join us on Thursday, January 27th @ Fiona’s Theatre at 6:30 pm for this special screening. This and all screenings are free and open to the public. Space is limited. Proof of vaccination is required and COVID-19 protocols will be strictly enforced.