African Diaspora Collection

As you walk through the African Diaspora Garden towards the river-side corner of Sankofa Farm at Bartram's Garden, you will pass towering sorghum, flowering sesame, okra, cotton, black-eyed peas, climbing gourds and luffa. Many of the farms that produce seed offered in this catalog are focused on growing crops connected to the experience of Africans in America. This collection includes many crops that either originated in Africa, or that became important staples in the new world. "Sankofa" is a Twi word that means go back and get it. It is often associated with a phrase that translates to "It is not wrong to go back for that which you have forgotten." The Akan depict this concept with an Adinkra symbol of a bird looking back with an egg (or seed) in its mouth while walking forward. Planting ancestral seeds is a way to embody this life-giving principle. Thank you to Chris Bolden-Newsome of Sankofa Farm for co-curating this collection.