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The Gullah are African Americans who live in the Low Country region of South Carolina

and Georgia

, which includes both the coastal plain and the Sea Islands. Historically, the Gullah region once extended north to the Cape Fear

area on the coast of North Carolina

and south to the vicinity of Jacksonville

on the coast of Florida

; but today the Gullah area is confined to the South Carolina and Georgia Low Country. The Gullah people are also called Geechee, after the Ogeechee River near Savannah, Georgia

. The term Geechee is more commonly used in Georgia.

The Gullah are known for preserving more of their African linguistic and cultural heritage than any other African-American community in the United States. They speak an English-based creole language containing many African loanwords and significant influences from African languages in grammar and sentence structure. The Gullah language is related to Jamaican Creole, Barbadian Dialect, and the Krio language of Sierra Leone

in West Africa. Gullah storytelling, cuisine, music, folk beliefs, crafts, farming and fishing traditions, etc. all exhibit strong influences from West and Central African cultures.

History

The name "Gullah" may derive from Angola

, where many of the Gullahs' ancestors originated. Some scholars have also suggested it comes from Gola, an ethnic group living in the border area between Sierra Leone

and Liberia

in West Africa, another region where many of the Gullahs' ancestors originated. The name "Geechee," another common name for the Gullah people, may come from Kissi, an ethnic group living in the border area between Sierra Leone, Guinea

and Liberia. Some scholars have also suggested Native American origins for these words. The Spanish called the South Carolina and Georgia coastal region Guale after a Native American tribe. The Ogeechee River, a prominent geographical feature in coastal Georgia, takes its name from a Creek Indian word. Regardless of the origins of these names, Gullah language and culture have strong connections to the African continent.

African roots

Most of the Gullahs' ancestors were brought to the South Carolina and Georgia Low Country through the ports of Charleston

and Savannah

. Charleston was the most important port in North America for the Atlantic slave trade. Almost half of the enslaved Africans brought into what is now the United States came through that port. Savannah was also active in the Atlantic slave trade.

The largest group of Africans brought into Charleston and Savannah came from the West African rice-growing region, which stretches from what are now Senegal

, Gambia

, and Guinea-Bissau

in the north to Guinea

, Sierra Leone

, and Liberia

in the south. African rice had been cultivated in this section of West Africa for possibly up to 3,000 years. South Carolina and Georgia rice planters once called this region the "Rice Coast", indicating its importance as a source of skilled African labor for the North American rice industry. Modern historians call it the "Upper Guinea Coast." The second-largest group of Africans brought through these ports came from the Congo

and Angola

regions in Central Africa. Smaller numbers also were imported from the Gold Coast (what is now Ghana

) and the West Indies

.

Origin of Gullah culture

The Gullah region once extended from SE North Carolina to NE Florida.

The Gullah people have been able to preserve so much of their African cultural heritage because of geography, climate, and patterns of importation of enslaved Africans. By the mid-1700s, the South Carolina

and Georgia

Low Country was covered by thousands of acres of rice fields. African farmers from the "Rice Coast" brought the skills for cultivation and tidal irrigation that made rice one of the most successful industries in early America.

The semi-tropical climate that made the Low Country such an excellent place for rice production also made it vulnerable to the spread of malaria and yellow fever. These tropical diseases were carried by mosquitoes that were brought unintentionally aboard the slave ships that came from Africa. The mosquitoes bred in the swamps and inundated rice fields of the Low Country. Malaria and yellow fever soon became endemic in the region.

Africans were far more resistant to tropical fevers than the European slave owners. The white population of the Low Country grew at a slower rate than the black population because the land was devoted to large plantations. More and more enslaved Africans were brought as laborers into the Low Country as the rice industry expanded. By about 1708 South Carolina had a black majority. Coastal Georgia later acquired its own black majority after rice cultivation expanded there in the mid-1700s, and malaria and yellow fever became endemic. Fearing disease, many white planters left the Low Country during the rainy spring and summer months when fever ran rampant. They left their African "rice drivers," or overseers, in charge of the plantations. Working on large plantations with hundreds of laborers, and with African traditions reinforced by new imports from the same regions, the Gullahs developed a culture in which elements of African languages, cultures, and community life were preserved to a high degree. Their culture was quite different from that of slaves in states like Virginia and North Carolina, where slaves lived in smaller settlements and had more sustained contact with whites.

Gullah customs and traditions

African influences are found in every aspect of the Gullahs' traditional way of life:

The Gullah word guber for peanut derives from the KiKongo word N'guba.

Gullah rice dishes called "red rice" and "okra soup" are similar to West African "jollof rice" and "okra soup". Jollof rice is a style of cooking brought by the Wolof and Mandé peoples of West Africa.

The Gullah version of "gumbo" has its roots in African cooking. "Gumbo" is derived from a word in the Umbundu language of Angola, meaning okra.

Gullah rice farmers once used the mortar and pestle and winnowing fanner similar to tools used by West African rice farmers.

Gullah beliefs about "hags" and "haunts" are similar to African beliefs about malevolent ancestors, witches, and "devils" (forest spirits).

Gullah "root doctors" protect their clients against dangerous spiritual forces using similar ritual objects to those employed by African medicine men.

Gullah herbal medicines are similar to traditional African remedies.

The Gullah "seekin" ritual is similar to coming of age ceremonies in West African secret societies such as the Poro and Sande.

The Gullah ring shout is similar to ecstatic religious rituals performed in West and Central Africa.

Gullah stories about "Bruh Rabbit" are similar to West and Central African trickster tales about the clever and conniving rabbit, spider, and tortoise.

Gullah spirituals, shouts, and other musical forms employ the "call and response" method commonly used in African music.

Gullah "sweetgrass baskets" are almost identical to coil baskets made by the Wolof people in Senegal .

Gullah "strip quilts" mimic the design of cloth woven with the traditional strip loom used throughout West Africa. The famous kente cloth from Ghana is woven on the strip loom.

The folk song Michael Row the Boat Ashore (or Michael Row Your Boat Ashore) comes from the Gullah culture.

Civil War period

When the U.S. Civil War began, the Union rushed to blockade the Confederate shipping. White planters on the Sea Islands, fearing an invasion by the US naval forces, abandoned their plantations and fled to the mainland. When Union forces arrived on the Sea Islands in 1861, they found the Gullah people eager for their freedom, and eager as well to defend it. Many Gullahs served with distinction in the Union Army's First South Carolina Volunteers. The Sea Islands were the first place in the South where slaves were freed. Long before the War ended, Quaker missionaries from Pennsylvania

came down to start schools for the newly freed slaves. Penn Center, now a Gullah community organization on Saint Helena Island

, South Carolina, began as the very first school for freed slaves.

After the Civil War ended, the Gullahs' isolation from the outside world actually increased in some respects. The rice planters on the mainland gradually abandoned their farms and moved away from the area because of labor issues and hurricane damage to crops. Free blacks were unwilling to work in the dangerous and disease-ridden rice fields. A series of hurricanes devastated the crops in the 1890s. Left alone in remote rural areas in the Low Country, the Gullahs continued to practice their traditional culture with little influence from the outside world well into the 20th Century.

Modern times

In recent years the Gullah people—led by Penn Center and other determined community groups—have been fighting to keep control of their traditional lands. Since the 1960s, resort development on the Sea Islands has threatened to push Gullahs off family lands they have owned since emancipation, but they have fought back against uncontrolled development on the islands through community action, the courts, and the political process.

The Gullahs have also struggled to preserve their traditional culture. In 2005, the Gullah community unveiled a translation of the New Testament in the Gullah language (a project that took more than 20 years to complete). The Gullahs achieved another victory in 2006 when the U.S. Congress passed the "Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Act" that provides $10 million over ten years for the preservation and interpretation of historic sites relating to Gullah culture. The "heritage corridor" will extend from southern North Carolina to northern Florida. The project will be administered by the US National Park Service with strong input from the Gullah community.

Gullahs have also reached out to West Africa. Gullah groups made three celebrated "homecomings" to Sierra Leone

in 1989, 1997, and 2005. Sierra Leone is at the heart of the traditional rice-growing region of West Africa where many of the Gullahs' ancestors originated. Bunce Island

, the British slave castle in Sierra Leone, sent many African captives to Charleston and Savannah during the mid- and late 1700s. These dramatic homecomings were the subject of three documentary films—"Family Across the Sea" (1990), "The Language You Cry In" (1998), and "Priscilla's Homecoming" (in production).

Celebrating Gullah culture

Over the years, the Gullahs have attracted many historians, linguists, folklorists, and anthropologists interested in their rich cultural heritage. Many academic books on that subject have been published. The Gullah have also become a symbol of cultural pride for blacks throughout the United States and a subject of general interest in the media. This has given rise to countless newspaper and magazine articles, documentary films, and children's books on Gullah culture, and to a number of popular novels set in the Gullah region.

Gullah people now organize cultural festivals every year in towns up and down the Low Country. Hilton Head Island, South Carolina

, for instance, hosts its "Gullah Celebration" in February, which includes "De Aarts ob We People" show, the "Ol’ Fashioned Gullah Breakfast," "National Freedom Day," the "Gullah Film Fest", "A Taste of Gullah" food and entertainment, a "Celebration of Low Country Authors and Books," an "Arts, Crafts & Food Expo," and "De Gullah Playhouse." Beaufort, South Carolina

hosts its "Gullah Festival" in May, and nearby Penn Center on St. Helena Island, South Carolina

holds its famous "Heritage Days" in November. Other Gullah festivals are celebrated on James Island, South Carolina

and Sapelo Island, Georgia

.

But Gullah culture is now being celebrated throughout the United States. Purdue University

in West Lafayette, Indiana recently held an event to showcase the Gullah culture. Purdue's Black Cultural Center maintains a bibliography of Gullah publications as well. And Metro State College in Denver

, Colorado

recently hosted a conference on Gullah culture, called "The Water Brought Us: Gullah History and Culture" which featured a panel of Gullah scholars and cultural activists. Metro State students and members of the community attended the event, which was covered in the local press. These events in Indiana

and Colorado are typical of the attention Gullah culture now receives on a regular basis throughout the United States.

Cultural survival

Gullah culture has proven to be particularly resilient. Gullah traditions are strong not only in the rural areas of the Low Country mainland and on the Sea Islands, but also in urban areas like Charleston and Savannah. But some of the old fashioned ways have persisted even among Gullah people who have left the Low Country and moved far away. Many Gullahs migrated to New York starting at the beginning of the 20th century, and these urban migrants have not lost their identity. Gullahs have their own neighborhood churches in Harlem

, Brooklyn

, and Queens

. Typically they send their children back to rural communities in South Carolina and Georgia during the summer months to be reared by grandparents, uncles and aunts. Gullah people living in New York also frequently return to the Low Country to retire. Second- and third-generation Gullahs in New York often maintain many of their traditional customs and sometimes still speak the Gullah language.

Overview of Gullah Culture

Gullah cultural topics

Gullah historical topics

Gullah historical figures

Gullah leaders, artists, and cultural activists

Famous African Americans with Gullah roots

Gullah cultural festivals

Other media

Television

Gullah Gullah Island; Children's show on Nickelodeon.

Films

Bin Yah: There's No Place Like Home (2008)
There is a River (2003) (Episode 1 of PBS Series "This Far by Faith")
The Language You Cry In (1998)
God's Gonna Trouble the Water (1997)
Home Across the Water (1992) (Streaming video)
Daughters of the Dust (1991)
Family Across the Sea (1990)
When Rice Was King (1990)
Gullah Tales (1988)
Tales of the Unknown South (1984) (One of these short films is a Gullah ghost story.)
Conrack (1974)

Radio programs

Footnotes

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