Sankofa
Sankofa means “go back for it”. Drawn as a bird turning its head back to an egg, it is the Akan symbol of learning from the past, and it is widely used in the African diaspora.
Meaning
Sankofa is an Akan symbol from Ghana, stamped on adinkra cloth and carved as a royal emblem, and taken up by people of African descent elsewhere as a symbol of history and identity. Philip Owusu, a curator at the University of Ghana’s Institute of African Studies Teaching Museum, describes its two forms: a bird with its neck stretched back to pick up an egg, and an abstract heart-shaped design (the heart-shaped Sankofa). J. E. T. Kuwornu-Adjaottor, George Appiah and Melvin Nartey of KNUST give the literal meaning as “Go back for it” and the symbolic meaning as “there is wisdom in learning from the past”. The National Park Service translates it as “look to the past to inform the future”.
Origin and history
The bird is drawn walking one way while looking the other. The National Park Service describes it as “a bird which appears to be moving forward while looking back”, the past carried into the future. Behind it, the KNUST authors write, is the Akan belief that the way the ancestors led their lives is worth following.
The sayings behind it
Sources give the proverb in different words. Owusu cites two Akan maxims. The first, “Se eto w’akyiri a fa, na sankɔfa, yenkyiri”, he translates as “if it falls behind you, retrieve it, for the recovery of that which was neglected is of a virtue”; the second, “Tete wo bi ka, tete wobi kyire, nti sankɔfa, yenkyiri”, as “the past has a lot to say, the past has a lot to teach, thus going back for something of the past is of a virtue”. Anthony Zamblé’s version in The Covenant Quarterly (2023) is shorter: “It is not taboo to return and retrieve something you left behind or forgot earlier.” The design-tools table at Rensselaer has “Return and get it”.
Sankofa in Ghana today
Owusu lists some of its present uses. Sankofa is the emblem of the Historical Society of Ghana, and one of the emblems of the Kyidom division of the Asante chieftaincy, the rear guard of the Asante king. When John Mahama wore it at his inauguration as President in 2025, several of the people interviewed for a study in Frontiers in Sociology read it as a spiritual invocation.
In the African diaspora
Owusu calls Sankofa an appropriated symbol of history and identity, “particularly amongst the Africans in the Diaspora”. At the African Burial Ground National Monument in New York, the memorial’s granite is shaped as a ship of the Middle Passage, and a Sankofa is carved on its side; the National Park Service glosses it there as “Learn From the Past”. The monument uses the heart-shaped form too (Sankofa (heart)).
Read next
- Next in Adinkra symbolsSankofa (heart)The heart-shaped Sankofa is the abstract form of the Akan symbol Sankofa, “go back for it”. It means the same as the bird: learn from the past.
- The same shape in Modern symbolsAutism infinity symbolThe gold infinity symbol is a sign autistic people use for autism: gold because its chemical symbol, Au, is the first two letters of “autism”. With the rainbow infinity of the wider neurodiversity movement, it is the symbol many autistic advocates choose in place of the older puzzle piece.
See also
Gye Nyame, Nyame Dua, Nsoromma (star), Osram ne Nsoromma (moon and star), Mate Masie, Ananse Ntontan (spider’s web).
Sources
- SANKOFA - Learn from the past (African Burial Ground National Monument), National Park Service, African Burial Ground National Monument, “SANKOFA - Learn from the past” (last updated 10 November 2015), U.S. National Park Service, whole page
- Adinkra Symbols as Multivocal Pedagogical/Socialization Tool (Philip Owusu 2019), Philip Owusu (Senior Assistant Curator, Institute of African Studies Teaching Museum, University of Ghana), “Adinkra Symbols as ‘Multivocal’ Pedagogical/Socialization Tool”, Contemporary Journal of African Studies 6, no. 1 (2019): 46–58, doi:10.4314/contjas.v6i1.3, Contemporary Journal of African Studies (University of Ghana), pp. 51–52
- The philosophy behind some Adinkra symbols (Kuwornu-Adjaottor et al. 2016), J. E. T. Kuwornu-Adjaottor, George Appiah and Melvin Nartey (Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology), “The philosophy behind some Adinkra symbols and their communicative values in Akan”, Philosophical Papers and Review 7, no. 3 (2016): 22–33, doi:10.5897/PPR2015.0117, Academic Journals, Some familiar Adinkra symbols: Sankofa
- A Reconstruction of African Religion through Adinkra Symbology (Anthony Zamblé 2023), Anthony Zamblé, “A Reconstruction of African Religion through Adinkra Symbology”, The Covenant Quarterly 81, no. 2 (2023): 18–31, The Covenant Quarterly (North Park Theological Seminary), p. 26
- Sociological and religious interpretations of Adinkra symbols (Mensah et al. 2025), Ronald Osei Mensah, Anthony Bordoh, Andrews Acquah, Eric Bruce-Amartey Jnr and Papa Kofi Nunoo, “Sociological and religious interpretations of Adinkra symbols: qualitative analysis of the 2025 inaugural outfit of Ghana’s president”, Frontiers in Sociology 10 (2025), doi:10.3389/fsoc.2025.1642863 (authors at Takoradi Technical University, the University of Education, Winneba, and the University of Ghana), Frontiers in Sociology, 4.1 Religious interpretations
- Adinkra Symbols Explained (African Burial Ground National Monument), National Park Service, African Burial Ground National Monument, “Adinkra Symbols Explained” (last updated 30 June 2021), U.S. National Park Service, the ship and the list of symbols
- Adinkra Symbols (Culturally Situated Design Tools), Culturally Situated Design Tools (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, with the National Science Foundation), “Adinkra: Symbols”, Culturally Situated Design Tools, table of symbols
The same shape elsewhere
Browse symbols formed from curves and waves.
Researched, edited and approved by Rory Hansen before publishing. Last reviewed October 9, 2026. How we research
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