“Go back to our past in order to go forward” (Adinkra term, Sankofa)

Recently, I found myself surprised when the HBO series Watchmen aired with an opening that illustrated the massacre on “Black Wall Street”. Flashing back to May 31, 1921, when mobs of white Oklahoma residents marched into an area of Tulsa that was thriving with successful Black businesses and residents was major. The fact is that to date many do not know about this tragic day in American history. Unfortunately, many found the idea that mobs of white people setting the area on fire and ultimately mass looting and killing hundreds of Black residents to be a thing of fiction. Resulting in the exact number of deaths still unknown not only due to the volume of the violence, but ultimately because the historical event has gone ignored by many for almost 100 years. Oh, how it hurts my heart. The souls of so many black folk have gone almost a century forgotten.

Looking at the past had me travel back in time to my childhood when I discovered “Black Wall Street”. There was a time when we had to visit the library to access paper based books, microfiche and/or film. There was no such thing as high-speed internet or Google searches. Visits to the library was a way of life. It exceeded the end of term school project. I remember from a single digit age the Peter Rabbit reads with my mother (fueling a love for reading) to teenage years researching any and everything in the stacks of African-American history. Most memorable were the readings that I engulfed like water because it fed my soul. Call me a nerd if you would like, but stories like “Black Wall Street” made a major impression on me. It was never a February, Black History Month, or show & tell type of thing. It was a I want to know more about my people to understand myself type of thing. It was Sankofa.

Recently, officials in Tulsa announce intent to excavate land that many believe sits as a grave for many victims in the massacre. With digging scheduled to begin in April and many voicing their passion to fully understand what happened in Tulsa in 1921, I see the beauty of Sankofa. “It is not a taboo to return and fetch it when you forget” (West African Proverb) came to mind when reading this breaking news published in the Los Angeles Times article titled, “Tulsa finally decides to address 1921 race massacre with search for mass grave”. This also took me back to a 2010 New York Times article titled, “Coffin’s Emblem Defies Certainty” that spoke to the remains of hundreds of colonial-era Africans found during a building excavation in Lower Manhattan in 1991. Among the remains found at that time included a coffin that illustrated the Sankofa symbol (Asante Adinkra design which refers to the significance of not forgetting the past). Here we are, in February, Black History Month, with breaking news via the Los Angeles Times having us look at the past. This is illustrating that are we living in a time that requires us to look at the past to understand the present to successfully move forward in the future. Is this a coincidence, divine intervention or serendipity? I’m not sure. But, my teenage self rejoices in the idea that so many more will have their souls fed learning more truth about the past and the souls of our ancestors that shall be named and remembered appropriately. Sankofa!