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SANKOFA – CRITICAL REVIEW
Sankofa, a movie by Haile Gerima revolves around the horrors of slavery, revealing the humiliating and torturous experiences people from the African Diaspora had to go through during the Atlantic slave trade period. A film based in Ghana, where the slave trade was rampant for centuries, it highlights the savagery of white people and how internalized the oppression was for the Africans through poetic descriptions of complacency and fear. While there are many other films based on slavery, what sets Sankofa apart is the journey of the characters and their transformation. I believe that the larger theme in the movie is the discovery and preservation of one 's identity; finding courage, defeating fear and seeking liberation, and most importantly,
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She is oblivious to her history and indifferent to her identity. The film highlights how the lack of knowledge about their history has caused Africans to internalize the same biases that the westerners had used to oppress them, making them disassociate from their African roots. A journey through her history helps Mona reclaim her identity as a person of African origin. My definition of Sankofa would be a reminder of the past, not only for the Africana, but also the non-Africans. The notion of Sankofa suggests that Africans need to remember their past if concerns regarding race have to be addressed in the present. The world cannot appreciate the African identity unless they don 't embrace it themselves. It is also a message for non-Africans to remember their privileged histories and acknowledge its part in their social position in the present world as the issues of identity can not be addressed unless they look at the African community from the lens of their