Gerrit Wustmann has published a wonderful review of “Sankofa” on 54books.de. The deep connection between him and Doğan Akhanli can be seen in every line and is a tribute to a wonderful writer who left us far too soon. Thank you for this review, Gerrit.
Writers like Doğan Akhanlı are dangerous for despots because their works and voices are the foundation of every democratic idea. That’s why they are always the first to come into fire when states turn authoritarian and anti-democratic.”
The Sankofa is a mythical bird from Ghana that always looks backwards when flying. By looking at the past he sees the future. The Sankofa could be the motto for all of Doğan's books and other works. Whatever he wrote was in the consciousness of cultural and historical education.”
And it is fleeting, often chance encounters, intersections of life paths as arbitrary as the power of despotic states, from which Doğan draws his stories. He switches back and forth between his characters, and some of these fleeting encounters spark new stories, lives intertwining like the fingers of lovers or the swords of enemies.”
Doğan tells about real people, about complex characters who become playthings of politics and history, who have to go through terrible things and yet have something in common, a common denominator that unites them despite all their differences: they retain their humanity.”
