Sankofa - Figura com Alpargata [Sankofa - Figure with Espadrille] portrays a man in the act of unveiling himself as he prepares for a journey. The only glimpse of a horizon is provided through the narrow piece of sky that draws the eye in, framed by a stylized gate. The gate is made of Sankofa arabesques, a common element in doors and railings in Brazil, since the colonial period, that also made its way to the United States and the United Kingdom. A similar gate existed in the artist’s childhood home.
“Sankofa” is a word in the Akan language of Ghana that means “to retrieve”, and is associated with the importance of learning from the past, often translated as "It is not wrong to go back for that which you have forgotten."