African American Poets and the Zamani

Thus far, little attention has been given to the concept of the Zamani period other than to identify it as one of the two dimensions of time incorporated by African ontology. To engage this concept further, recall that for the African, history moves "backward" from the Sasa period to the Zamani, "from the moment of intense experience to the period beyond which nothing can go." Mbiti further explains the concept of the Zamani:

Zamani is not limited to what in English is called the past.… Zamani overlaps with Sasa and the two are not separable. Sasa feeds or disappears into Zamani. But before events become incorporated into the Zamani, they have to become realized or actualized within the Sasa dimension. When this has taken place, the events "move" backwards from the Sasa into the Zamani…. It is the final storehouse for all phenomena and events, the ocean of time in which everything becomes absorbed into a reality t hat is neither after nor before.
John S. Mbiti, African Religions and Philosophy

Death is the passage way into the Zamani, but not an immediate one – remember that the departed remain members of the community after they die. "When, however, the last person who knew the departed also dies, then the former passes out of the horizon of the Sasa period….He has sunk into the Zamani period." This is true of events as well as people, and it is a key concept to keep in mind as discussion of the poetry created by African Americans continues. The Zamani has important consequences for the practice of Sankofa, altering the ways poets used the past to illuminate the present. It is "by looking towards the Zamani that people give or find an explanation about the creation of the world, the coming of death, the evolution of their language and customs, the emergence of their wisdom…."

As time passed, African Americans became less "African" and more "American." That is to say, they began to embrace the mythical "American Dream" more fully, and demanded fuller participation in the life of the nation. Those with personal experiences of slavery began to pass away as well, taking their memories, their Sasa, with them in their ascension toward the Zamani. Their descendents were left with only the memories of their memories, thus the events of slavery took on new connotations.