Sankofa brings together readings, films, class lectures, and conversations with a pilgrimage to major Civil Rights sites in the southern part of the U.S. focusing on black/white relations. We explore the biblical, theological, sociological, political, cultural, and psychological dimensions of the struggle for racial justice from its roots, throught the Civil Rights era, and then focusing in on its contemporary implications. We also seek to provide experiences that lead to personal transformation on the difficult questions of race and justice. Sankofa is a safe place that is focused around living into Dr. King's vision of The Beloved Community. Sankofa is primarily about informing people about how to identify and inform themselves concerning the issues that divide us, both as a society and as the Church. After identifying the said issues, Sankofa is dedicated to helping equip students to learn how to deal with, respond to, & counteract these issues from a biblically rooted position of faith which requires both a personal & cooperate response from believers.

Sankofa can also be taken as a two-credit class (AS-2540) during the Spring semester pending successful completion of an application and interview process.

The Sankofa program is financially supported by a generous grant from the Lilly Endowment. UMin, in partnership with North Park Theological Seminary, is able to offer this program to students at a substantial discount thanks to this funding.

The dates for this year's Sankofa are February 16-19, 2012.

Thank you for your interest in this year's Sankofa journey. The first step of the application process is to fill out this online application. The second step is to pick a 1hr time slot from the following dates that you are available to interview and bring your schedule for the spring semester to the interview. You will not have to be present for the entire hour, but we are blocking off 1hr time slots, because you may be a part of a group interview. 

Requirements for Sankofa
All students who desire to participate in Sankofa and apply for this trip need to understand the additional requirements that participating in this experience entails. Your signature on this document will serve as your acknowledgement and agreement the additional requirements for this experience. Furthermore, if you are selected for this trip and then fail to live up to the below requirements (which you are agreeing to by signing this document) after being selected, your signature on this document acknowledges that you understand that your failure to fulfill the below requirements might result in your removal from this year’s team that will go on the trip. These requirements are here to protect your partner who will be investing a lot into this trip and to also to protect you, but the reality is that it is impossible for your partner to fully benefit from this experience with an absentee partner or even one who is not as dedicated to the experience as they are. So your signature on this page affirms your dedication to the following requirements:

1. An agreement to have a meal (could be breakfast, lunch, or dinner) with your partner once a week.

2. An agreement to attend at least two of the three lectures which will occur on Wednesdays from 7-9pm (the dates of the meetings are February 1st, 8th, & 15th.

3. An agreement to attend at least 6 of the 7 one hour meetings held on Sundays from 4:00 to 5:00 exclusively for participants of the trip. These meetings will begin 11-20-11 (there will be no meetings over Thanksgiving weeked or Christmas break, the meetings will then begin again next semester on 1-22-12) & will be held every Sunday next semester at this time up until the time of the trip. 

So the dates for these meeting are as follows: 11-20-11, 12-4-11, 12-11-11, 1-22-12, 1-29-12, 2-5-12, & 2-12-12. These meetings will take place on Sunday’s from 4:00 – 5:00 weekly here on campus.   

4. An agreement to attend church at your partner’s church, (their home congregation here in the Chicago land area) one Sunday before we leave to go on the trip (This is if your partner attends church).   

5. October 28th (if you don’t have class it is a requirement to ) attend the segment of the student leadership conference where Dr. John Perkins will be speaking at 10:30 am in Anderson Chapel.

Additionally, we strongly encourage you and your partner to attend both: 

6. The MLK Commemoration events on Jan. 16th at 10:30 am in Anderson Chapel.

7. The Urban Outreach/UMin led Justice Conference March 22-24 here on campus featuring practitioners such as Jim Wallis & Cornel West.

You can apply here.