Sankofa (1993)

Starring:

• Kofi Ghanaba
• Oyafunmike Ogunlano
• Alexandra Duah
• Nick Medley
• Mutabaruka
• Afemo Omilami
• Reggie Carter
• Mzuri
• Jimmy Lee Savage
• Hasinatu Camara
• Jim Faircloth
• Stanley Michelson
• John A. Mason

Storyline

The story begins with Mona (Oyafunmike Ogunlano), an African American model on a fashion shoot at the former slave castles in Cape Coast, Ghana.  Mona undergoes a journey back in time and place to a slave plantation in North America where she becomes Shola, a house slave, and experiences the suffering of slavery firsthand.  In becoming Shola and returning to her past culture and heritage, Mona is able to recover her lost slave identity and confront her ancestral experience.  Shola’s interactions with her fellow slaves are marked with humanity and dignity, most notably with Shango (Mutabaruka), a rebellious field slave, and Nunu (Alexandra Duah), one of the few slaves to remember her life in Africa before being stolen by Europeans.

—Allyson Nadia Field