Welcome!

Àkíyèsí

Egbé Sankofa Kingdom of the Gods of Afraka is a Pan-Afrakan/Nationalist organization. As Pan Afrakan nationalists we believe in the historical and cultural unity of Afrakan people the world over and we believe that as Afrakans in North America we possess a distinct aesthetic, sense of values and communal ethos that sources from our contemporary folkways and from our continental Afrakan heritage. As such, our perspective is that everything an Afrakan does, thinks, or says is a cultural act, or expression. To our way of thinking culture is the total value system, and it is the ways and means of transmitting the value system intergenerationally.

The traditional culture that we have identified with and refer to for our ideological coherence, social and political cohesiveness and popular mobilization is that of the Yoruba of West Afraka. The ideological-cultural framework or paradigm that provides for the secure grounding of cultural specificity in the Yoruba, and simultaneously provides for a substantive conceptual basis for Pan-Afrakan or world Afrakan expression has been termed the Olùwa Ìsèse Paradigm of ReAfrakanization, Family Development and Nationbuilding.

The restoration of the order of Àkámarà, of Olùwa Ìsèse, is the mission of Egbé Sankofa Kingdom of the Gods of Afraka and the Sankofa Movement. This means that our mission- the guiding policy and the desired final result- is the full unqualified sovereignty of the Afrakan world and its constituent units. The healing begins with the rediscovery, redefinition and revitalization of our traditional, indigenous Afrakan history- culture, values and morals (see Appendix II). For Afrakan people history is everything. It is before, now and the yet to be. It is everything. [Akoto, 1999]

Our movement- the Sankofa Movement- is a movement that is “emergent-reconstitutional” in that it relies on the innate motivation of each constituent family. It relies on “intergenerational transmission” for the sustained expansion of the movement. The temporal foundation of the movement are the families, family collectives/communities [that] have committed themselves to its guiding principles and who are passionately committed to advancing the movement through institutional building efforts and transmitting it whole to their children. [Akoto, 2004]

We do not think of Afrakan culture and tradition as static or incapable of reinterpretation and contemporary according to our Nu Afrakan sensibilities. We believe that we go back (Sankofa) to Afraka to re-learn and remember who we are, and then we bring that knowledge, wisdom and understanding forward and adapt it to today’s reality. Our culture is malleable and flexible to handle this. We teach the basic principles of traditional Afrakan cultures and the path of moral and ethical behavior (good character), but we also teach our members to feel free to improvise and be creative as situation and conditions demand.

Full incorporation into our community will require a gradual acceptance of a new way of life. This is the “cultural revolution” that our esteemed and honored ancestors spoke of. There must be a change in your mind before there can be a change in you behind. This is the purpose of our core value- ReAfrakanization. To ReAfrakanize in general means that one will have to reorient themselves totally from anti-Afrakan values, tastes and ethics to Afrakan ones. The Afrakan values we speak of revolve around service to Spirit/Life first, then to family and finally to Afrakan people worldwide.

ReAfrakanization will help you rediscover who you are, redefine your mission in life, and give you the tools and the enthusiasm to revitalize your way of life. As Nana Omowale Malcolm X said in his organizing document for the OAAU:

Upon establishment, we Afro-American people will launch a cultural revolution, which will provide the means for restoring our identity that we might rejoin our brothers and sisters on the African continent, culturally, physically, economically, and share with them the sweet fruits of freedom from oppression and independence of racist governments.

Egbé Sankofa is for Afrakan people who are serious about ReAfrakanization Family Development and Nationbuilding. To leave the chaos of slavery and domination behind and move towards sovereignty and nationhood requires a transformative process of building up momentum until we achieve breakthrough. This process- From Slavery to Sovereignty- can be divided into three (3) stages and each of these stages contains two (2) key concepts, they are:

Disciplined People/Families

·  Exemplary selfless leadership

·  Acquire/Attract the right people/families

 Disciplined Thought/Thinking

·  Confront our brutal reality head-on yet never lose faith in our ultimate victory

·  The Siafu Concept

Disciplined Actions

·  A culture of discipline

·  Selectively apply new technologies

We believe that those that act out of the old paradigm of revolution, mass movements and protest politics will continue to produce the results of slavery, poverty, misery and death instead of the desired and sought for sovereignty, agency, power and Afrakan World Community (Sankofaman).

Our ultimate victory will not take place in one generation. Ours is an intergenerational war of irreconcilable differences. It is an organic, evolutionary process.  Our victory is inevitable if we have the internal rectitude to walk the road less traveled. The enduring tenets of great and powerful communities/nations are still as relevant and true today as they have always been and they will not change. That is why they are called principles, because they are timeless and consistent in all epochs and eras. We must consistently adhere to these timeless fundamental principles, with moral rigor, mature vigor and righteous discipline.