SANKOFA

A biracial British woman begins a quest to find her African father.

Anna Bain was raised in London by a single White mother, never knowing her African-born Black father. Now she's going through a kind of midlife transition: She's separated from her White husband, her daughter is grown, and her mother has just died. When she discovers her long-missing father's diary among her mother's effects, Anna sees an opportunity to reconnect with her African heritage. Her father, Francis Aggrey, was an international student in London when he met her mother, Bronwen Bain, in 1969. Francis and Bronwen began a passionate affair, but Francis returned home without ever realizing the Welsh teenager was pregnant. Anna becomes something of a detective, taking the diary to a renowned professor in Edinburgh for authentication and tracking down people mentioned in it. Eventually, she discovers that her father changed his name to Kofi Adjei and was later elected prime minister of the newly formed (fictional) country of Bamana. Anna's journey to Bamana to meet her father tests her mettle after decades of complacency as a self-described housewife dependent on her husband to make the decisions in their comfortable life. Some plot twists veer toward the melodramatic—Anna is asked to help a girl who's been accused of witchcraft; she has an encounter with corrupt police—and seem designed to explain stereotypes about African culture to Western readers. Anna's experiences growing up in Britain as a woman of color are also underexplored. However, Francis Aggrey/Kofi Adjei is a fantastic, charismatic character, and every scene he's in crackles with energy. The title refers to a mythical bird that "flies forwards with its head facing back," a potent symbol for Anna, who must learn to embrace the new opportunities that come with change.

An engagingly written journey of self-discovery.