In my 60th year, I set out for Africa, the continent that transformed my life when I first sojourned there thirty years before. I’d waited half a lifetime to return, and could scarcely believe that the waiting…the exile…was finally over. Yes! It’s true. I’ll be 60 at the end of December. Yes! It’s true. Africa…
Riehlife’s April poetry editor for National Poetry Month Stephanie Farrow is a fine poet in her own right and a close friend since we served in Peace Corps Ghana in the 1970s. Stephanie selected these Adinkra poems by A. Kayper-Mensah (Sankofa: Adinkra Poems) Stephanie tells us: Adinkra symbols are pictographs that reflect a specific proverb…
Sankofa is an Adinkra Symbol from Ghana meaning “Return and Fetch It.” Click here to read Riehlife post from December 5, 2007 on how Sankofa has defined the path of my life. The SANKOFET is a poetry form created by the Sisters-Nineties Literary Group. The format has three verses or stanzas of seven lines each….
Sankofa can mean either the word in the Akan language of Ghana that translates in English to “go back and take” (Sanko- go back, fa- take) or the Asante Adinkra symbol. A cloth supporting Adinkra symbols is termed an “Adinkra cloth” and has its own particular uses and meanings. As a young woman in the…