First off, welcome to my story! It's a short one, and is different from all my other attempts because it's a holiday romance, and set in the American South. It sounds cheesy, but it's meant to be a sweet comfort story.

Now, on to a quick title explanation.

Sankofa is a Twi word from Ghana that means "to go back and get it". It's often associated with the Akan proverb "Sɛ wɔ werɛ fi na wɔ san kɔ fa a yenkyi," which roughly translates to "It is not wrong to go back for that which you have forgotten". Literal translation would be "If you forget and you go back to get it, we don't/won't hate." Many explanations online don't show the literal translation but I'm merely adding it for context.

To be fair, I am not Twi (okay I partially am, but I merely understand it, I don't speak it, as is the case with many Akan people in relation to the other languages in the group). I speak Fantse/Fanti, which is another mutually intelligible Akan language. So basically the pronunciation is slightly different. Great. That's out of the way, glad we've established that.

In this story, I mean "Sankofa" in 2 ways. First, the actual literal definition of "go back and get it." Nothing fancy, no Adinkra symbols, nothing. Just like if I casually say "san kɔ fa wɔ maame", which means "go back and get your mom." (I said that in Fantse but yeah, you get the point.) Iris went back to get her "feelings", if you want to be literal.

The second way is based very loosely on the proverb above. It is merely that Iris is remembering/looking back at her past, hoping it will change her future for the better.

I don't want to spoil everything, so just go ahead and read it! I chose this title also as a nod to my own heritage as a native born Ghanaian. Iris is a Ghanaian while also being someone who is used to the traditions of the American South having grown up in it, much like me. So the title shows both sides of her life's influences: birth and environment.

As another note, I want to make it clear that I welcome constructive criticism, but hate comments will be deleted as soon as I see them, so spare us both the trouble of me deleting a comment you wasted your time writing.

With that said, thanks for reading as I prattle along! I'll stop here and let you get right on to the story, I hope you enjoy it!

Please vote, comment, and share if you like the story and any others I've written!

Me da'ase (thank you),

~Mochi 💙

P.S.: The chapter titles will be the numbers in Fantse, not Twi, since that is the language I am more comfortable with.