Developing an African Epistemology through Sankofa-Odu
The study provides a framework for understanding Africa’s distinctive cognitive and spatial dynamics through Sankofa-Odu, a repository of traditional African knowledge, philosophies, and cultural practices. By integrating the Akan principle of Sankofa, a concept of retrospective knowledge retrieval, with the Yoruba Odu Ifá system, which is a symbolic encoding and interpretive logic, the framework suggests a cyclical, non-linear epistemology capable of explaining and predicting social and natural phenomena within African contexts. The approach illustrates how cultural spaces and cognitive processes are interconnected and emphasises the richness and diversity of African thought systems that challenge the dominance of Western epistemologies. This study promotes a more inclusive and diverse global knowledge landscape, highlighting the importance and vibrancy of African epistemological traditions in contemporary discussions, which Western epistemological models often overlook. This is achieved by analysing Abderrahmane Sissako's award-winning film Bamako (2006), an effort to transform Sankofa-Odu from a philosophical idea into a structured theoretical model. Mental mobility is fundamental to the Sankofa-Odu framework, enabling movement among the past, present, and future through processes of retrieval, symbolic encoding, interpretation, and prediction. This dynamic process shapes the framework’s structure and supports its application to African social and natural contexts. By emphasising adaptable and culturally rooted knowledge systems, the framework contributes to decolonial and interdisciplinary scholarship while questioning the adequacy of Western epistemologies in explaining African-centred realities.