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Sankofa african american museum on wheels

Sankoa AFAM Museum on Wheels

Sankofa – it is not taboo to go back and fetch what you have forgotten.
King Adinkera

A term coined by those living across the waters in Ghana, West Afrika and specifically declared by King Adinkera, a member of the Akan tribe.

For, we must go back to reclaim all that has been stolen, lost, hidden and ultimately, forgotten in order to preserve and rebuild our present and our future. This is the motto of historian and curator, Angela W. Jennings.

Born Angela W. Jennings in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn, New York, Angela became keenly aware of her love of history she called her story at a very young age. All of her life, Angela knew there was more to her story as an African American than what was being taught to her in school. As Angela matured and created a life of her own as an adult, her impassioned fervor for knowledge lead her to travel the world (the United States, the U.S. Virgin Islands, West Africa, and Europe). Her admiration for all things symbolizing the beginning, the past, the story paved the way for her personal mission of Sankofa. Ms. Jennings became a collector of artifacts, as it pertained to the African-American legacy. Angela’s first trip to Ghana in 1983 ultimately would signify what she would later discover to be the beginning of her traveling museum.

In the midst of her travels and during a conversation with her nephew; an honor roll student, this former retail manager came to the disheartening realization of the profound lack of African-American history her nephew had been exposed to. The unfathomable reality of the perpetual limited and missing chronicles by the major contributors to civilization, coupled with the persistent visceral urging to move into the vibration of her calling in life, Ms. Jennings established and began her career as the Curator of her very own traveling museum entitled, The Sankofa African-American Museum on Wheels.

Spanning from the year 1860 to the ever present, Ms. Jennings journeys with all spectators exposing the pain, the pride and the depths of the souls of those who came from Africa in shackles and triumphant over the degradation of slavery. Ms. Jennings cleverly displays her unique blend of art collectibles and memorabilia while serving as a griot of sorts in her oral presentations and dramatizations of selected periods and historical figures.

Well versed in the knowledge of the story, The Sankofa African-American Museum on Wheels provides a detailed display of artifacts commencing with the Middle Passage (slavery) to the era of King Cotton, to the days of Emancipation. Ms. Jennings then offers an oratorical presentation on the powerhouses in African-American history, such as Ida B. Wells, The Negro Baseball League, The Tuskegee Airmen, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., to name a few. Additionally, her exhibit informs her audiences of the significant contribution to society offered by African Americans evident in the plethora of their inventions.

Although a traveling museum based on the history of the African American, an experience with the Sankofa African American Museum on Wheels transcends cultures and ethnicities, as the educational tour inspires all viewers leaving each with a sense of empowerment.

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