What does that Bird Mean?

Sankofa Bird

My Cousin John Kite Sellers, saw the Sankofa!  The bird symbol. 

He didn't know where it came from? Or it's meaning. He saw it on a road he usually takes and the billboard was promoting the Arts at a local museum in the area. This all got started because he saw it. I just happened to know what it was after he described what it's purpose was for in his city. So I explained....

I happened to mention that there is a Bird that symbolizes what I do. That is how this Blog Piece came about. He said "I saw that Bird", of course I said; Where? So....our conversation was long that night. I had went on explaining....

What the Sankofa Bird means to me and all Genealogists.  

Cousin John Kite has been steadily in my life since I met him in 2003 in Cincinnati at our Ike Ivery Reunion. We just clicked. He is a Historian. Lover of the Bible. He does good will out of the kindness of his heart only for the reason to be obedient to God.

John Kite ~ Lump ~ Me,True.

Before Cousin John Kite...
 There was my Beloved Aunt Sallie Beatrice Lewis Robbins. 1920~2014. 

Turning 92! Aunt Sallie Bea! 

She was the spiritual guidance in my life. She was my moral compass.  She is who kept me in line and on the straight and narrow about the family history. She kept me grounded and humbled. 

Now that she is gone since November of 2014, I think she has sent me John Kite...not to fill her shoes or motherly touch. 
He's giving me the backbone to continue on. Just went I stopped worrying who was gonna be my "family member" Mentor. John Kite picked up the gavel right where Aunt Sallie Bea left off. 

It just happened naturally. Who was gonna step in her shoes to not fill but keep me footed in the Truth?


The pictures of the Akan bird is the symbol of Sankofa. It comes from King Adinkera of the Akan people in West Africa. 

Sankofa is expressed in Language as so:
"se wo wer fi na wosan kofa a yenki".

It's translations means: It is not taboo to go back and fetch what you forgot". 

"Sankofa" Teachs us that we must go back to our roots. Where we come from. In order to move forward. 

That is what Family Historians like myself or Genealogist do everyday. We reach back and gather the best of information of what the past has taught us. What it has to teach us. So we can reach our Highest Potential as we move ahead in Life. 

It Allows us to go back for what we have Lost, Forgotten & Forgone or has been taken and stripped from us. It can be Reclaimed, Revivied, Preserved. 

Visually and symbolically "Sankofa" is an expression of a mythic bird that flies forward while looking backward with an egg. The egg symbolizes the Future in it's mouth. 

1895 Bullock County, Midway,  Alabama my 1st Sankofa

I have Sankofa all around me at my work Desk. Titled in my Family Documentary by Me and in one my Favorite pieces I did when I first started. 

Sankofa is what I love to do each and everyday. I'm reaching back into the Past and Reclaiming my History. 

Alabama was my 1st. I wonder where my Sankofa Journey will Lead me Next?


Leave me a NoTe or Comment.......


Where has your Sankofa Journey taken You?

What does Sankofa mean for you?

Genealogical Sketch:
Ike Ivery
Leila Sellers
Saint Timothy Sellers
John Kite Sellers

Ike Ivery 
Eddie Lee Ivery Lewis
James E. Lewis Sr.
James E. Lewis, Jr.
True!

John Kites' Grandma and my Great Grandma were Sisters!