"The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them."
~Ida B. Wells
Who Is Sankofa High For?
“American history is longer, larger, more various, more beautiful, and more terrible than anything anyone has ever said about it."
~James Baldwin
Black History is American History. It is impossible to responsibly teach children the history of our country without including the contributions, achievements, events and experiences of African Americans from our inception. With today's school curriculum, African-American History continues to be taught separately or only during the month of February-- the month where teachers squeeze 400 plus years into 28 (maybe 29!) days of the year.
Sankofa High serves as a resource for schools, churches, organizations, and parents to teach this history daily. As a platform created by a teacher, countless hours have been poured into what would make disseminating African American History to our children efficient and practical. Stakeholders have access to many resources such as lesson plans, project ideas and activities students can use to learn African American History the way it should be taught. You will find vocabulary, reading activities, movie/documentary suggestions, technology integration, and so much more. We hope that you find this site helpful on your quest to educate the next generation or maybe even yourself! Please feel free to contact us with suggestions on how to make this site even better.
#sankofahigh
#teachingblackhistory365
Why do we call ourselves Sankofa High?
The Sankofa symbol is one of the adinkra symbols of West Africa, specifically Ghana, and these symbols are often used on African fabrics, logos and pottery and their used as a decorative function but the symbols represent objects that encapsulate messages that convey traditional wisdom, aspects of life or the environment and many times they have distinct meaning often linked with proverbs.
The Sankofa is linked to the Akan proverb which translates as:
“It is not wrong to go back for that which
you have forgotten."
When you break down the word "sankofa":
"san" means to return,
"ka" means to go ,
"fa" means to fetch, to seek and take.
Together it is translates, to go back and get it.
Many times, it feels as if our history has not been taught in its entirety--only piecemeal during Black History Month. Even then, schools either focus on the slave trade or Civil Rights Movement which are very important to our history but does not cover the true scope of the Black experience.
Sankofa is often symbolized by a bird—called the bird of knowledge. The bird reminds us that we must continue to move forward as we remember our past and the seed that you see represents the planting of a seed (or knowledge) for future generations that come after us.
Sankofa High teaches that we must go back to our roots and reclaim our past in order to move forward. Reach back and gather the best of what our past has to teach us and then we will understand how we came to be and who we are today. We cannot depend on ONLY schools to teach Black History. It will take a village. We hope that you will use our resources and travel on this journey with us.
The Meaning of Sankofa
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