Sankofa

Chibundu Onuzo
3.84
22,471 ratings 1,983 reviews
Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9781646220830. Masterful in its examination of freedom, prejudice, and personal and public inheritance, Sankofa is a story for anyone who has ever gone looking for a clear identity or home, and found something more complex in its place. Anna is at a stage of her life when she's beginning to wonder who she really is. She has separated from her husband, her daughter is all grown up, and her mother—the only parent who raised her—is dead. Searching through her mother's belongings one day, Anna finds clues about the African father she never knew. His student diaries chronicle his involvement in radical politics in 1970s London. Anna discovers that he eventually became the president—some would say dictator—of a small nation in West Africa. And he is still alive... When Anna decides to track her father down, a journey begins that is disarmingly moving, funny, and fascinating. Like the metaphorical bird that gives the novel its name, Sankofa expresses the importance of reaching back to knowledge gained in the past and bringing it into the present to address universal questions of race and belonging, the overseas experience for the African diaspora, and the search for a family's hidden roots.
Genres: FictionAfricaAudiobookContemporaryBook ClubLiterary FictionFamilyAdultNovelsRace
304 Pages

Community Reviews:

5 star
4927 (22%)
4 star
10283 (46%)
3 star
6229 (28%)
2 star
901 (4%)
1 star
131 (1%)

Readers also enjoyed

Other books by Chibundu Onuzo

Lists with this book

Where the Crawdads Sing
Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine
Daisy Jones & The Six
Born a Crime: Stories From a South African Childhood
My Sister, the Serial Killer
Half of a Yellow Sun
[ATY 2024] African Author
207 books84 voters
Things Fall Apart
The Poisonwood Bible
Half of a Yellow Sun
Africa (fiction and nonfiction)
1741 books1603 voters
Klara and the Sun
Transcendent Kingdom
The Living Sea of Waking Dreams
Booker Prize Eligible 2021
153 books177 voters