Sankofa by Chibundu Onuzo is a fantastic novel of self discovery. It is a magnificent exploration of how family and identity are built. The story is not just about the feeling of having a place or of missing a piece of oneself, it’s a lot more deep, more mind boggling and uncovering of the mankind underneath the surface. It is equally about becoming, as it is about making peace with who you’ve generally been. That is connecting with personal history and discovering your way back home.
Sankofa is our protagonist who is looking for her lost personal history. She has recently isolated from her husband, her daughter is now an adult, and her mom has died recently as well. While handling her mom’s possessions, Sankofa discovers the identity of her unknown dad and sets out on a journey to discover him and connect her present to her past.
According to me, Sankofa was a very well written and relatable person. While from the ouside, she seems to have control of her life and who she is, but from inside she swirls with uncertainty. She is a lady whose roots have pulled free, as they were in soil too unstable to even think about holding her tight. The characters around Sankofa were less grounded, however as the novel was firmly centered around Sankofa’s experience of them and their connections, didn’t trouble me much.
The story happens mostly in America, with a journey to a little African country. The plot of Sankofa by Chibundu Onuzo is to a great extent internal, as we follow Sankofa’s journey into her family ancestry. Eventually, the story was settled such that it felt awkward for me. It seemed like an enormous change in the class of the story that didn’t coordinate with what had preceded. It worked as far as topic, yet was hard to absorb as far as plot and style of the story, and pulled me out of Sankofa’s journey rather than giving the story a fantastic conclusion.
Overall, Sankofa by Chibundu Onuzo was a good exploration of a woman’s search for her true personal history. I’m interested if different readers had a similar experience with the resolution of the book.
Also Read: No Cure for Being Human: And Other Truths I Need to Hear by Kate Bowler
