What is SANKOFA?

Sankofa is a West African word meaning “looking backward to move forward.” The Sankofa journey, an intentional, cross-racial prayer journey, seeks to assist disciples of Christ on their move towards a righteous response to the social ills related to racism. This interactive experience explores historic sites of importance in the Civil Rights movement, sites of oppression and inequality for people of color, while seeking to move participants toward healing the wounds and racial divide caused by hundreds of years of racial injustice in the USA.

A Sankofa journey increases one’s awareness, understanding and sensitivity for past struggles, victories and continuing racist oppression existing in our country,how far we have come, and how far we have yet to go.

Sankofa allows us the opportunity to consider how together, we might better address racial righteousness in our church, our nation, and our world.

On this 72-hour bus journey, participants will travel to critical sites of past and present racial injustice, such as Birmingham, AL, Memphis, TN, Albany, GA and Atlanta, GA. They will meet and hear from persons directly involved in ministries of justice in southern Georgia, visit places like the 16th Street Baptist Church, civil rights institutions, the Martin Luther King Center, and more.

A Sankofa journey is not just about information of the past and present, but seeks to be a journey for both personal and corporate change – simply put, a journey of spiritual transformation. Through sites visited, videos watched, and active processing of the journey, relationships of trust are deepened in an environment of grace.

The Sankofa Journey moves beyond the classroom setting to an interactive and intentional cross-racial partnership experience. The journey is an essential building block in addressing racial righteousness. Participants will explore and experience past sites of the Civil Rights movement, present realities of injustice and oppression, a sampling of Covenant ministries living out the Kingdom vision.