Sankofa
Sankofa is the story of African enslavement from the point of view of Africans, but Sankofa, a bird that looked back to go forward, is also a metaphor for the African American experience all the way until now. Each character represents an element of African American culture. Of particular importance are the interactions between both African & American cultures, social economic & political institutions. The character transformations in Sankofa often highlight personal transformations of individuals and groups in African American cultural history. Each situation in the film therefore should be examined with an eye towards the totality of the African American experience from Diaspora to the present time.
Characters
Sankofa Photographer
Lafayette Slaves Plantation Masters
Shola (Mona) James Noble Ali
Lafayette Joe(Tumey) Father Raphael
Lucy
Shongo
Nunu
Kuta & Baby Kwame (witness)
OPENING SEQUENCE 1. The talking of the drums….”Rise up, you bird of passage….”
2. White in Africa is the color of death – what is the color of death in Eurocentric countries…?
3. Sankofa – the (bird/ Priest) that looks back to know where its going.
4. Photographer & model- taking and selling her image; sale of the flesh, prostitution of the spirit.
5. When the African approaches- she hides behind the white man.
6. African slave fort guards and their treatment of Sankofa – what do they represent?
Spirit Journey of Sankofa Transformation experience: Model becomes ancestor of model, “Don’t you recognize me?” “I’m not an African- I’m American”!!
She was “branded into” her past and the realities of her location and her connection. Blacks work with slavers.
PLANTATION EXPERIENCE
The nature of the work.
Storytelling and saving African traditions (the Griot): Story of the “cracker” and Nunu African mysteries
Home tongue – mother tongue Akan - Rape of Shola –
The importance of skin tone – closer to Afrika the darker.
Why Shongo never “run off”?
What about Noble Ali & Joe -- “Niggers with whips and Master James. “You mean I got me a nigger who can’t count and whip at the same time?’ “You wanna be a field Nigger”
Explore strategies of control and resistance: divide and rule-stick and carrot – house Negro/field Negro -- playing the role-- Noble whipping & seizure -- work stoppage
Kutas death and baby’s birth…. Nunu orishas “ They can never do nothing to my soul”-- “Our skin is the only chain they have”
Power of Unity & Tradition Tradition of women taking a lead in Black communities.
Oral tradition: storytelling – songs - names
CENTRAL CONFLICTS
The story of the porcupine girl, Afreye - “meaning special”
Joe & father Raphael- images of Christ/ Mary, the stations of the cross - “for our sins”
Noble Ali and his awakening with Nunu
Christian guilt –VS- African religious philosophies & humanism
“I will never sleep with a Head- man”
Stories “Porcupine girl”
“The Belly of The Frog” “The snake will have what is in the belly of the frog”
Some Key Events Secret Society Preserves African Culture Religion
Maroons
Rape- “taking his frustration out on me”
More than Preservation of Elements of Africa- New Culture among Maroons
Uprising of the hill people
Sale of Nunu – Noble defends … But Joe? “Be wise” “you know what to do” (complex adaptation)
Noble becomes “ripe” – Joe sinks into Christian guilt as Lucy watchs.
Shola feels the hypocrisy of father Raphael.
(Nunu returns) Father Raphael & Joe confession- “I’m different” “Don’t mention that heathen Guinea woman in my church” Virgin Mary image -VS- Lucy “We can make a pretty brown baby”
Lucy & Joe conflict mirrors division within Black community (Religion, Sex, Race, Skin color)
CLIMAX SCENES – CRISIS RESOLUTION
Shongo & Traditional Macumba orisha medicine (madness, murder, suicide)
Nunu(Afreye) relates middle passage & Joes (Tumey) birth initiation of new Maroons/ Rebels
Sholas run, Recapture, and Punishment/ Blessing/ Warning .
Raphael & Lafayette -“Beat the Heathen Nigger out of her”
Have you ever seen that frustrated- felt that abused?
Afraid of death? Shongo passes Sankofa to Shola
Joe freaks & kills Nunu (pain in her womb -symbol she prays to Africa but Christianity intervenes)
Nunu on the altar = Africa slain
“Take that heathen out of my church or just like the rest of the Niggers, you have no soul”
“Ain’t she a saint?!”
Some big old buzzard took her back to Africa (Ritual Cleansing)
Death of Nunu sparks Slave Revolt
Slave Revolt crushed--ALL DIE or ALL FREE……?
Buzzard comes for Shola-Re-Birth for Mona
Full circle Slave Fort Mona with Slave Revolt Shola
Sankofa is the story of African enslavement from the point of view of Africans, but Sankofa, a bird that looked back to go forward, is also a metaphor for the African American experience all the way until now. Each character represents an element of African American culture. Of particular importance are the interactions between both African & American cultures, social economic & political institutions. The character transformations in Sankofa often highlight personal transformations of individuals and groups in African American cultural history. Each situation in the film therefore should be examined with an eye towards the totality of the African American experience from Diaspora to the present time.
Characters
Sankofa Photographer
Lafayette Slaves Plantation Masters
Shola (Mona) James Noble Ali
Lafayette Joe(Tumey) Father Raphael
Lucy
Shongo
Nunu
Kuta & Baby Kwame (witness)
OPENING SEQUENCE 1. The talking of the drums….”Rise up, you bird of passage….”
2. White in Africa is the color of death – what is the color of death in Eurocentric countries…?
3. Sankofa – the (bird/ Priest) that looks back to know where its going.
4. Photographer & model- taking and selling her image; sale of the flesh, prostitution of the spirit.
5. When the African approaches- she hides behind the white man.
6. African slave fort guards and their treatment of Sankofa – what do they represent?
Spirit Journey of Sankofa Transformation experience: Model becomes ancestor of model, “Don’t you recognize me?” “I’m not an African- I’m American”!!
She was “branded into” her past and the realities of her location and her connection. Blacks work with slavers.
PLANTATION EXPERIENCE
The nature of the work.
Storytelling and saving African traditions (the Griot): Story of the “cracker” and Nunu African mysteries
Home tongue – mother tongue Akan - Rape of Shola –
The importance of skin tone – closer to Afrika the darker.
Why Shongo never “run off”?
What about Noble Ali & Joe -- “Niggers with whips and Master James. “You mean I got me a nigger who can’t count and whip at the same time?’ “You wanna be a field Nigger”
Explore strategies of control and resistance: divide and rule-stick and carrot – house Negro/field Negro -- playing the role-- Noble whipping & seizure -- work stoppage
Kutas death and baby’s birth…. Nunu orishas “ They can never do nothing to my soul”-- “Our skin is the only chain they have”
Power of Unity & Tradition Tradition of women taking a lead in Black communities.
Oral tradition: storytelling – songs - names
CENTRAL CONFLICTS
The story of the porcupine girl, Afreye - “meaning special”
Joe & father Raphael- images of Christ/ Mary, the stations of the cross - “for our sins”
Noble Ali and his awakening with Nunu
Christian guilt –VS- African religious philosophies & humanism
“I will never sleep with a Head- man”
Stories “Porcupine girl”
“The Belly of The Frog” “The snake will have what is in the belly of the frog”
Some Key Events Secret Society Preserves African Culture Religion
Maroons
Rape- “taking his frustration out on me”
More than Preservation of Elements of Africa- New Culture among Maroons
Uprising of the hill people
Sale of Nunu – Noble defends … But Joe? “Be wise” “you know what to do” (complex adaptation)
Noble becomes “ripe” – Joe sinks into Christian guilt as Lucy watchs.
Shola feels the hypocrisy of father Raphael.
(Nunu returns) Father Raphael & Joe confession- “I’m different” “Don’t mention that heathen Guinea woman in my church” Virgin Mary image -VS- Lucy “We can make a pretty brown baby”
Lucy & Joe conflict mirrors division within Black community (Religion, Sex, Race, Skin color)
CLIMAX SCENES – CRISIS RESOLUTION
Shongo & Traditional Macumba orisha medicine (madness, murder, suicide)
Nunu(Afreye) relates middle passage & Joes (Tumey) birth initiation of new Maroons/ Rebels
Sholas run, Recapture, and Punishment/ Blessing/ Warning .
Raphael & Lafayette -“Beat the Heathen Nigger out of her”
Have you ever seen that frustrated- felt that abused?
Afraid of death? Shongo passes Sankofa to Shola
Joe freaks & kills Nunu (pain in her womb -symbol she prays to Africa but Christianity intervenes)
Nunu on the altar = Africa slain
“Take that heathen out of my church or just like the rest of the Niggers, you have no soul”
“Ain’t she a saint?!”
Some big old buzzard took her back to Africa (Ritual Cleansing)
Death of Nunu sparks Slave Revolt
Slave Revolt crushed--ALL DIE or ALL FREE……?
Buzzard comes for Shola-Re-Birth for Mona
Full circle Slave Fort Mona with Slave Revolt Shola