We have completed the logo design which incorporates three basic symbols that are familiar to most of us in the Diaspora:
The Circle which contains it all. It is, with this project, repaired. The vision of those involved in this undertaking is that with the project’s completion the circle of living and ancestors will be whole, united.
The Cross represents intersections and cycles. For many over the centuries it is a symbol of Christianity. This particular cross, however, is based on traditional west and central African cultures. The horizontal line is the mark between earth and water. We, the living, are on earth above the line, and the ancestors are below the line, in water. It has an even stronger literal connotation when applied to this project – an ocean of bones. The vertical line marks a life cycle progressing from east to west (right to left) as the earth rotates around the sun. We all follow the cycle of birth (dawn), adult (noon) and death (night).
Sankofa is taken from the adinkra symbol of the Akan of Ghana. Literally translated from their language it means, “go fetch.” As we repeatedly state both memory and knowledge are major factors in this project. We go into the future and live in the present having learned from the past.
Each of us will take what we see and interpret it for ourselves. One person, an artist, suggested that we open the bottom portion of the sankofa symbol where the facing birds’ tails merge to represent the ancestors calling from the ocean to us to honor and remember them. Make it fit your individual need and point of view.
