Sankofa Commons
Sankofa Commons is a repository that traces, convenes, bridges and connects indigenous knowledges and southern epistemologies, framing expertise beyond the dominant knowledge systems.
It takes its name from the Akan principle of Sankofa: go back and fetch it.
Go back and fetch what has been lost, marginalised, and pushed to the edges of history, yet has sustained societies and the planet for millennia. Sankofa Commons carries this principle into practice, reclaiming suppressed knowledges and adapting them for the times we are in.
Archiving and connecting knowledges for narrative change.
Illustration created by Joy Richu for 'Sankofa Futures' by the Global Narrative Hive
WHAT SANKOFA COMMONS TRACES
We are not doing this memory and archival work alone. This work is in multitudes. Many people are already doing it, in many different ways, and we join them to make that work visible.
At the heart of any knowledge are the people and relationships who hold it: memory workers, narrative practitioners and knowledge workers. We bring their reflections, including how they frame work that challenges dominant narratives.
Sankofa Commons has three categories:
Existing archives and repositories
Many others have been doing this work for a long time. We want to connect with them.
South to South
Mapping the relationships and organising around southern knowledges.
Our place in the family
Surfacing affirmative, alternative narratives of family values.
HOW WE WORK
We play a convening role. We make this work visible, within our network and beyond, and build bridges across southern, alternative and indigenous knowledges.
We share the ideas of archivists, memory workers and southern knowledge practitioners, and host conversations with them. Narrative change is long-term work, and memory is where it starts.
Part of Sankofa Futures: Pan Africa to the South
Sankofa Commons is one pillar of Sankofa Futures, which also strengthens relationships between knowledge holders, organisers and practitioners across the Global South and the South of the North, through learning exchanges, convenings and connective infrastructure.