Approaching Our Past: Explaining Sankofa & What It Can Teach Us with Psalm 129

What do we need to retrieve from our past so we can advance in peace, likewise, what do we need to address or deal with from our past to promote a healthy future?

Sankofa is a word that when translated means return and fetch it.  It is an Adinkra (pictogram) symbol of the Asante people of Ghana. 

With the passing of Juneteenth, I wanted to briefly discuss Sankofa and what it can teach us along with the lessons of King Hezekiah of the Old Testament (who may have authored this week's psalm). Later, I'll sum up with an introduction to my favorite culinary historian and author, Michael W. Twitty. 

Books mentioned in this episode:

The Cooking Gene: A Journey Through African American Culinary History in the Old South by Michael W. Twitty 

https://a.co/d/0cvm7z7P

Rice: a Savor the South cookbook by Michael W. Twitty https://a.co/d/00A6khtP

For more information about me and my work, please visit www.brianneturczynski.com or www.lovingtheimperfect.com

Transcript

Welcome to Loving the Imperfect Podcast, a show for seekers of deeper contemplation. I'm Brianne Turczynski. For 10 years, I've been studying offerings from holy teachers and holy texts. I'm a journalist who has listened to the stories of many people throughout the years, and so I thought it was my turn, to share a thing or two about my journey and my thoughts on scripture and holy work from different faith traditions and practices, mostly from Sufi teachers, Buddhists, and Christian mystics. 
 So, join me as we imperfectly and clumsily make our way through each day, mustering up compassion and some words of love for the hours ahead. 
 
 Hello and welcome to Loving the Imperfect. Today is Psalm 129. It is from an anonymous psalmist, but some say it was written by Hezekiah. And I will explain who that is in a couple minutes.

Okay, Psalm 129:
 
“They have greatly oppressed me from my youth,”
     let Israel say;
 2 “they have greatly oppressed me from my youth,
     but they have not gained the victory over me.
 3 Plowmen have plowed my back
     and made their furrows long.
 4 But the Lord is righteous;
     he has cut me free from the cords of the wicked.”

5 May all who hate Zion
     be turned back in shame.
 6 May they be like grass on the roof,
     which withers before it can grow;
 7 a reaper cannot fill his hands with it,
     nor one who gathers fill his arms.
 8 May those who pass by not say to them,
     “The blessing of the Lord be on you;
     we bless you in the name of the Lord.”

(Borrowed from the NIV)

Okay. The more I read these psalms, and especially one like this, the more I hear bitterness and violence and I understand that sometimes we can be like the psalmist here and be very bitter about the people who have done wrong. And I hear a lot of bitterness in this psalm, but I also hear some hope in this psalm. The psalmist hopes there won't be enough people who hate Zion and that the hate won't grow enough to make an impact and on the other hand, I also hear a curse on the people who hate Zion.

And I think some of the best Psalms. are the ones that allow room for more interpretation from the reader. So that the words dwell and ramble just a little bit longer in our minds. And so, with this psalm, it can go either way. The Bible I have said that it may have been written by Hezekiah. Hezekiah was a king in the Old Testament. He had a lot of attributes. He was a reformer of Judah and he had a lot of strengths as a king. But one of his faults as a king was dwelling too much on the past and not paving the road for a future. He says, “They have greatly oppressed me from my youth”. And he repeats that twice. He talks about plowmen having plowed his back and making furrows long. Not only is that foreshadowing what happens to Jesus in the New Testament, but also talking about his past trauma, not only him, but he's talking about his country, his kingdom. And this psalm speaks to this and to the bitterness he carried. It's a good lesson for us to not carry our past around so much that we become embittered and entangled by it. So much so that we forget to make certain changes for the future, especially when it comes to protecting a new generation from systemic trauma.

I think it would be great if more people really made an effort to not pass on their trauma or their bitterness to their kids or their grandkids. But that's easier said than done. People do this all the time, and they don't even mean to. They just say one thing to be funny, and the little kids hear it.

And then they think that that's funny too, because they want to be in on the joke. Then that becomes something that they really think of as truth until someone teaches them otherwise. When we're traumatized by other people or situations it's hard to move on from that for ourselves, but I think we can make problems when we are persistent in sharing our bitterness with our kids or employees. People that look up to us can take these opinions for their own, and now we have a whole new generation worried about the trauma of our past, and now making it their reality. And it continues like this until one day someone stops looking backward and looks forward or is completely present.
 
 There is a wonderful image in West African culture called the Sankofa and it is an Adinkra symbol of the Asante peoples of Ghana. It's a pictogram, so it basically is an image that explains an aphorism, it's the image of this popular saying, Sankofa, which means return and fetch it. The symbol of Sankofa became very popular especially during the Atlantic Slave Trade as it provided a sense of comfort for enslaved people to retain their cultural heritage and keep it and pass it down. 

And I'm getting this from the College of Charleston website. There's an even longer translation, which is, it is not taboo to go back and fetch what you left behind. This Sankofa symbol is an image of a bird advancing forward while his head faces backward to pick up an egg on its back.

I first saw this image when my husband and I were in Charleston, South Carolina. And it was attached to this rather small memorial for the enslaved people who built the Unitarian Church and made all the bricks. And I was so taken by the image because I really loved that saying, to return and fetch it, because there's so much in our past that is helpful for us in order to move forward.

We have so many people. That say, Oh, don't look at the past. Move forward. Look ahead. But, in this case, the whole meaning of Sankofa is that it's not taboo to return and fetch what you left behind. 

It doesn't mean to dwell on the past. It doesn't mean to go live there because remember that this bird is advancing forward. And I just really loved that. I think it's a lesson for all of us, and for people like Hezekiah, who was dwelling too much on his past and wasn't advancing forward.

He had sort of stymied himself in the past. So I think this is good advice for us, that it is not taboo to go back and fetch what you left behind and I think about the Sankofa symbol often, that we can learn from our past traumas, to make better futures or even to live a more peaceful present I think about what I have left behind that maybe I need to go fetch and look at it and work on it so that my future or my present can be brighter and lighter and that I can be free. 

So, what is it in your life that you might have to go back and fetch and deal with? Or is it a bright spot in your past that you want to bring forward? Maybe you were really into gardening, and you don't do that anymore, so you want to go back and fetch that skill that you had or that love that you had for gardening and bring it into your present.

So I'll be thinking about this.
 
 I've written over 200 poems, and I decided, because I'm a teacher, I have the summer off, so I decided this summer I would go through all of my poems and organize them into manuscripts and really start editing them, because a lot of times I just throw them up on the screen. They're written in my notebook, and I just throw them up into a document on the computer. 

Some of them haven't even been looked at in several years, so yesterday I was looking at all of them and reading them, and I'm like, geez, you know, you think they're so bad when you write them at first, but then a couple years go by and they’re not as bad as I thought they were.

So, that was the hopeful little thing, a bright spot in my day yesterday as I looked at all these old poems that I had written.
 
 Juneteenth that just passed, which is when the last of the enslaved people in the United States were free because they finally got word down in Texas that the Civil War was over, that Lee had surrendered. So, I think with that celebration that this is relevant, the image of Sankofa, the jewel. The egg is that beautiful culture passed down generations. Think of all the food that we have in this country, it wasn't by any good means, but we wouldn't have that food if it wasn't for Sankofa, people bringing their culture and food traditions over from Africa. Culinary history is very important. If you're into food history, Michael W. Twitty is a culinary historian and author. He has traced his family all the way back to Ghana and Sierra Leone. His one book called The Cooking Gene which is a journey through the African American culinary history in the Old South is so amazing. I cooked out of that book, and I had my family over and we had this beautiful meal, and I talked to them about his history and the history of the enslaved people in America.

 It was just a really nice dinner, and everything tasted so good. I highly recommend that book if you're into food history. He also has another book called Rice, that dives into the history of rice, and I love rice, so I'm interested in reading that. I haven't gotten into it yet, but I'm excited to. I'm going to put the links to all the books I mentioned in the information for this show. You can go on my website, www. lovingtheimperfect.com and you can subscribe and join over 300 subscribers. 

The episodes come right to your inbox just make sure they're not going to your spam. You get the entire transcript of this episode, and pictures that I've put in with the books. I like to take nice pictures of my books. 

So let us join in this celebration of Juneteenth. It doesn't have to be one day. It can be always, so let us join in this celebration and think about these things that we need to free ourselves from today or bring that bright spot of our past into our present into these times that we're living.

And hopefully we can make the world just a little bit better for each person, each generation by doing this.

So I'll be thinking about this and the whole meaning of Sankofa and maybe you will too.  I hope it is helpful for you. Thank you so much for joining me this week. Please consider subscribing or writing a review or following. Whatever you choose to do is great. It helps out the show. Next week we'll be covering Psalm 136. Thank you so much for joining me today.

I'll see you next week. Have a great one. Bye bye.