He wondered where they came from. He was 21 years old and had never heard of the African slave trade. I couldn't believe we had been denied the knowledge of the slave trade in Africa. Even in the U.S., it was very, very covered up, and you have to dig to go underneath to find what has taken place. The film's purpose, he says, is to help Africans and African Americans understand why and how they came to be who they are.
History is power.
Sankofa is a philosophical, mythological bird passed down from generation to generation from the Akan people of Ghana. The name means to move forward, you must reclaim the past. I was very unhappy with 'Roots,' ' says Gerima, referring to Alex Haley's saga that traced a black family from its origins in Africa through slavery and finally to freedom in America. It only showed their tolerance - their capacity as victims to tolerate what was perpetrated on them. The spirit of resistance was very much absent.