TAÍNO TI…YƐMA WO AKWAABA …ALAAFIA…SALA MALEKUM
We greet you, your ancestors and spirit guides who walk with you. Welcome to Sankofie, a space, time, place and process where we recognize that we are children of many ancestors. Where we say ‘We Have a Claim to Many and Many Will Claim Us. Please join us in understanding how, by looking through the lenses of spirituality we may journey into an understanding of creation and evolution and how man, woman established helpful relationships to nurture ceremony and sustain harmony.
As a special gift from a primarily conquest driven, blood & tears watered history we have the opportunity to enjoy the many nations and ethnicities walking through our veins. Since about 1513 Jamaica has seen the arrival of Africans, Indians, Chinese, Germans, Jews (initially identified as Portuguese) and Syrians/Lebanese. With all of that the Jamaican population today is identified as more than 95% black, with Africa being the primary origin of our ancestors.
Whereas many of the other groups have been able to maintain their spiritual culture at a recognizable level of practice, African spirituality and culture in general has not done as well as the size of the population would suggest or even warrant. Whereas Churches, Synagogues, Mosques are present and undisturbed across the Jamaican landscape, African shrines are not even recognized as absent, as many would not even suffer the introduction of a thought that the words ‘church,’ ‘Africa’ and ‘shrine’ could be in the same sentence. While European introduced religious practices are welcome, African practices are demonised and legislated against.
Our ancestors know their children and having waited long or maybe not even so long, for us to remember, many will reciprocally rise to claim us. Sankofie helps us reclaim and reconnect to the traditions and ways of life of our ancestors using their spirituality as our port of entry. We are living the teachings of Sankofa to ensure our 7th generation of Jamaicans and others, are able to stand on the solid foundation we are today building for them, by applying to our lives and ways of living, principles from the legacy left to us which we are now going back to fetch from our ancestors.
Sankofie fosters awareness, understanding and engagement with the spiritual cultures of our Taíno, Akan, Yoruba and Congolese ancestors so as to, awaken and celebrate our divine spirit, appreciate love as an infinite divine consciousness, renew and strengthen ancestral foundations, access divine guidance, seek clarity for everyday living, chill, lime, contemplate, learn, teach and live our lives well. Our guiding principles are respect, humility and gratitude.
We aim to promote Indigenous Jamaican and African spirituality, establish spiritual communities, increase awareness and promote ancestral ways of life, organize educational visits to ancestral and other lands, raise funds to support the activities of Sankofie, provide guidance for living in balance with nature, organize and participate in activities to honour the ancestors of this land, the deities and our own spirit.
We invite you to join hands and hearts with us.
Welcome to Sankofie.
I have a clear vision of a world where spirituality, however it is described, is consciously, knowingly, intelligently embraced and used to evolve a united state of harmony within which we may all dwell.
I was born in Portland, Jamaica, named Carol in honour of my mother’s childhood friend, and had my first spiritual bath at the grand young age of one(1)year old. My mother’s father was a renowned ‘scientist’ and her mother, at one point in time, a revivalist. She grew up primarily with her father up to the age of 15 when he passed, and who, to this day, guides and protects her through dreams. I attended the usual schools, infant, primary, high and managed fairly well through it all. Singing, especially the singing of folk songs, was an interest at all these levels of schooling and into later years. My grandmother who raised me was a member of the New Testament Church of God. Since she would not leave us at home alone, we were among the most faithful attendees at Church. This is where I received my first formal introduction and invitation to religion. I learned, respected, participated, but did not accept. Later on I attended college, started working, graduated university and, through varied portals, ventured into African spirituality. This has become for me, a life long journey of learning, living and sharing, as I currently engage with Akan, Yoruba, Congolese, Edo, (all ancestors of this land), spiritual expressions. On this path I have been blessed to have visited and participated in rituals and ceremonies in spiritual houses in Ghana, Cuba and Nigeria. I have also been inspired to establish Sankofie as a space in Jamaica to help to raise ‘spiritual’ consciousness and improve our knowledge of the ways of life of our ancestors and deities of the groups of Africans who came, and the Jamaican indigenous people who received them. In a few words, I am a child of the ancestors of this land, here in present time to serve. I am recognized by a few names, but am most often called Carol, Nana, Fofie or Okomfo Fofie.