The Ch­agua­nas Women’s and Youth Group (CWYG) pre­sent­ed Sanko­fa: Go Back and Get It at the Na­pari­ma Bowl on Ju­ly 26.

As one of the pre­mier groups in the Best Vil­lage com­pe­ti­tion for many years, CWYG brought its sig­na­ture ex­cel­lence to the stage with a vi­brant dance the­atre pro­duc­tion that show­cased au­then­tic African and Afro-T&T folk tra­di­tions, in­fused with sub­tle con­tem­po­rary el­e­ments.

Sanko­fa is a pow­er­ful con­cept root­ed in the Akan peo­ple of Ghana, West Africa. The term, both a word and a sym­bol, em­bod­ies themes of her­itage, re­flec­tion, and the im­por­tance of learn­ing from the past to re­claim lost or for­got­ten knowl­edge. It is com­mon­ly trans­lat­ed as “Go back and fetch it” or “Re­turn and get it.”

The pro­duc­tion, writ­ten by Sheyenne Nor­eiga and di­rect­ed by Clea­vand Ser­ries, fea­tured a se­ries of cap­ti­vat­ing dances ded­i­cat­ed to the Or­isha deities, of­fer­ing au­di­ences a rich cul­tur­al ex­pe­ri­ence steeped in tra­di­tion and mean­ing.