To honor our ancestors is to remember who we are.

Colonization has done more than take land; it has severed lineages, silenced languages, and erased the sacred memory of those who came before us. Many of us walk the earth unaware of the power that flows through our bloodlines. Yet in African cosmology, the ancestors are not distant or dead; they are present, living forces that continue to guide, protect, and speak to us through dreams, symbols, and intuition.

The Akan word Sankofa teaches us to return and retrieve what was lost. When we study, remember, and honor our ancestors, we restore the wisdom that colonization tried to erase. Ancestral veneration is not worship of the dead; it is tapping into a living archive of epigenetic memory. We honor the ones who lived, struggled, created, and dreamed so that we could exist. In doing so, we realign with our true selves and inherit the guidance we need to walk forward with clarity.

When imbalanced, we suffer from rootlessness, identity confusion, and disconnection. Personally, this may show up as a feeling of being lost, spiritually numb, or alienated from one’s culture. Collectively, societies that forget their ancestors repeat cycles of harm, devalue intergenerational knowledge, and remain vulnerable to cultural erasure. Without ancestral connection, we float; without anchor, without compass, without meaning.

The imagery shows a young boy in silent meditation, seated calmly as a sacred vision of his ancestral clan surrounds him. These ancestral presences are not mere ghosts, but luminous guides who whisper truths, remind him of who he is, and prepare him to walk in dignity. This visual affirms that when we sit in stillness, we can hear those who have crossed over, and carry their wisdom forward.