From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
The Gullah people, who are of African slave ancestry, live in the Sea Islands and the coastal regions of nearby South Carolina, Georgia and northern Florida. In Georgia, they are commonly referred to as Geechees. A newer term is Native Islanders, but its appropriateness has been debated because it implies that the people are native to the Americas and not to Africa.
The origin of the name Gullah may be Angola, a country in Southwest Africa where many of the Gullahs' ancestors came from. However, some believe it comes from Gola, a tribe near the Liberia-Sierra Leone border in West Africa. Regardless of the origin of the name, the Gullah language and culture have clear African roots
In the late 1600s, the Sea Islands of South Carolina, Georgia and northern Florida were covered by thousands of acres (many km) of indigo, rice, and cotton plantations. While there were many Native American and Chinese slaves working on the plantations, as well as European indentured servants, the majority of the workforce consisted of African slaves. After the American Civil War ended in 1865, the slaves were freed and the plantations closed. Penn Center on Saint Helena Island, South Carolina is a modern institution engaged in research and preservation of Gullah culture.
The cultural heritage of the Gullah people has drawn interest from ethnolinguists. Viewed as a whole, numerous forces impacted the African diaspora, leading to an intermingling of language, culture, and tradition among slaves. Slave traders captured slaves from tribes in disparate regions and sold them when and where they could. Once in America, commerce and market forces caused even families to become separated. Though their owners certainly viewed them as a homogenous group, in truth very few slaves shared common languages, customs, or traditions with others on the same plantation.
The Gullah slaves represent a startling exception to this rule. A large concentration of slaves from the same African tribe became concentrated on the coastal plantations of South Carolina. They were able to interact culturally in a manner reminiscent of their lives in Africa, preserving a wide range of customs and traditions. When the American Civil War began, Union forces rushed to blockade the Confederate shipping lanes. The white land owners, fearing the turmoil of war, fled for the high country with plantations abandoned. When Union forces arrived in the Sea Islands, they found the Gullah working the plantations of their former masters, living in a thriving community steeped in African cultural tradition.
There is an ongoing debate about the status of the plantations after they closed. One side claims that the slaves purchased the land from the plantation owners when they left. The other side claims that the owners abandoned the plantations, slaves and all. The central issue is the legal ownership of the land, which has been under heavy development since the 1980s.
Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas is a Gullah, and spoke the Gullah dialect until the age of 16.
The Gullah language is an English-based creole, strongly influenced by West African languages such as Vai, Mende, Twi, Ewe, Hausa, Yoruba, Igbo, and Kikongo. Like other Atlantic creoles, it developed as a way for slaves to communicate with both Europeans and members of African tribes other than their own. It strongly resembles the Krio language of Sierra Leone, a major West African English-based creole. The name and chorus of the Christian hymn "Kumbaya" is said to be Gullah for come by here. Other English words attributed to Gullah are juke (jukebox), goober (Southern term for peanut) and voodoo.
In a 1930s study by Lorenzo Dow Turner, over 4,000 words from many different African languages were discovered in Gullah. Other words, such as yez for ears, are just phonetic spellings of English words as pronounced by the Gullahs, on the basis of influence from Southern & Western English dialects.
- See also: Lorenzo Dow Turner's Africanisms in the Gullah Dialect (ISBN 1-57003-452-4)
- See also: Languages in the United States and List of dialects of the English language
Note: All Gullahs/GeeChees in America are not practicing their Jewish faith. Some are in other religions.
http://www.gullahgourmet.net/history.htm
Gullah History
Gullah is a culture unlike any other in the world. It is a manner of living, working, story telling and beliefs that trace roots to the first slaves arriving in the Lowcountry of South Carolina in the early 17th century.
These original African immigrants were the primary builders of the lucrative rice trade of early colonial America. The skills they had utilized while developing a flourishing culture in Sierra Leone and other Western African countries gave them the know how to adapt these agricultural talents to the marshlands of coastal South Carolina.
Still surviving in communities around Charleston, Hilton Head and Georgetown the Gullah island lifestyle is simple in practice, but rich in heritage. It is a way of life that is always being threatened by the ever increasing coastal development around these areas.
It is here, on these barrier islands among the Gullah communities, that traditional storytelling, cooking and crafts thrive and intrigue visitors to the Charleston area.
The world famous Charleston Sweetgrass basket, a 1000 year old art form, still survives and a visitor to Charleston's Market can watch the basket ladies as they use weaving tools made of bone to preserve this millennium old craft. The Gullah people are known for their superstitious nature and their most interesting dialect.
Now, Geechees/Gullahs in the United States are becoming gradually known for their Igbo (Hebrew) Jewish heritage.
More Gullah images:
Gullah male drummers
Gullah Culture Area Map
Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition
http://users.aol.com/queenmut/GullGeeCo.html
Songs, Singers, Food & Media
What does "Kumbaya" means? by Cecil Adams http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a980911a.html
Kumbaya Lyrics http://www.lyricz.net/G/Guadalcanal+Diary/130833
http://www.plantationsingers.com/
The Plantation Singers are one of the Southeast's most popular a cappella and percussion gospel singing groups.
With their energetic performances the Plantation Singers play an important role in the preservation of the Gullah spirituals and the sacred music of the South Carolina Low country.
You can hear them sing their songs on their website. Plus put in an order or contact them for performances.
Archer Music Service
David & Paula Archer, Managers
108 Pinecrest Boulevard
Summerville, SC 29483
(843) 871-4460
www.archermusic.com
email:david@archermusic.com
