Thanks Maryrrf. I'm glad to know that there are people of color who are re-claiming the banjo. There are new generations of African Americans who may not automatically equate the banjo with US slavery or artificially blackened faced minstrel music. I think it is wonderful for them [and for us oldtimers] to have new or re-created banjo music {or music that includes the banjo] that better appeals to our aesthetics.

I particularly applaud Rhiannon Giddens for coming up with the name "Sankofa Strings". "Sankofa" is an Akan {Ghana, West Africa} adinkra pictorial symbol and proverb which means "It is never to late to go back and reclaim that which you have left behind." Since the late 1980s, or earlier African Americans have widely adopted the word "Sankofa" and one of its pictorial symbols [a bird standing with his head looking backwards] as a symbol for our connection with our roots. BTW, multicolored kente cloth, another symbol that African Americans have adopted to express our pride in African culture, also comes from the Akan people. African Americans pronounce "Sankofa" like this {sand-KOH-fah}.

As an aside, I think if the word "Sankofa" hadn't conformed with African American sound aesthetics,it wouldn't have been so widely received regardless of its meaning. Part of that aesthetics is a strong preference for words [including personal names] that have two to three syllables and end with an "a". Check out the large number of Arabic and contemporary African Americans female names that have an "a" at the end [for example "Aliyah" {the Arabic 'h" is usually dropped or not pronounced}. Other examples of 'a' ending female names given to popular with African Americans are "Maisha", "Aisha" "Chantiqua", "Taneka". "Kenya" is a Kikuyu {East African} word and nation name that is quite common among African Americans as a [mostly] female name, simply because of its two syllable formation and the "a" ending...