Survival of West African Culture through Gullah Culture
Search Terms: *African Diaspora, *Gullah, “Gullah People,” *Gullah Geechee
The topic of the African Diaspora gets me excited. This is because the topic spans .over different countries and involves different forms of culture and the black experience. I ended up on the subject of Gullah Geeche due to Jonathan Green's interview about his early exposure in the art world. I am already familiar with the term Gullah/Geeche because my family is from Charleston, South Carolina, where the Gullah culture is very prevalent. I was inquisitive from Jonathan Green’s interview on where and what the archive would throw out about Gullah culture.
Origins of the Gullah People
Painter and Printmaker Jonathan Green cites the origin of his ancestors, the Gullah people, “The Gullah community is actually from Jacksonville, Florida to Jacksonville, North Carolina, all of the coastal islands, the inlets, and the marshland area. Those people all are considered the Gullah; those people are the most true to the African culture as any Afro-American here on the shores of the United States of America, Georgetown, Charleston, Savannah, Port Royale, which is near Beaufort, South Carolina, is considered Ellis Island, and that’s where many of the blacks came through port from Africa to the Caribbean to the United States of America. And many of those blacks worked on the plantations that were built in the area because the land was so fertile.” Green gives the different states with a significant amount of Gullah people, primarily from coastal towns.
Green then discusses how this is due to the slave trade while also citing the countries in Africa that these people were brought over from, “... bring enslaved Africans over to this country, they selected specific African people from Sierra Leone.”
Terminology of Gullah Geechee
Regarding the Gullah Geeche culture and language, essential distinctions must be made. Union leader Clayola Brown talks about both the Gullah and Geechee languages, “..but what I do know about Gullah, is an actual language and the cadence….would mix English words with African words and have it come at a quicker rate than how we speak now. It is rhythmic, and it’s almost Carribean.”
She then adds more regarding the Geechee term, “...Geechee connotates ignorance as far as our interpretation…Geechee is someone who has a lousy command of the English language, that’s why you’ll find a lot of South Carolinians will take their time to articulate their words to make sure you understand what they are saying because it was always a negative saying, ‘God, you sound just like a Geechee.’ And its, its the rolling of the words and the chopping of the S’s and the — that kind of thing that made you a Geechee…Geechee is a style of life.”
Jonathan Green adds a bit more to the distinction between Geechee and Gullah in a regional aspect, “the difference is basically, the people from the Georgia area are Geechies. The Gullah are from the South Carolina area.”
Art from HistoryMaker Jonathan Green
Gullah Language
The Honorable Lucille Whipper (1928-2011), who had served as the vice chairman of the Democratic convention in 1972, talks about the Gullah language, “.... our pattern Gullah, but words, certain words, you know, like we would say pulice instead of police, things like that or we’d say instead of put out the light, we ichee out the light.’
Doll artist Zenobia Washington also recounts growing up around the Gullah language, “...My mom or grandmother might say or my great-grandmother might say, “Gal whut I tell you to do?” you know, “What are you doing?” or “Why you put dat dar in de pot” You know so its kind of a language.”
Gullah Food Traditions
A central part of the Gullah culture and world is food. State deputy attorney and county government official from Prince Georges County, Maryland, Jack Johnson, says, “...everything grew, centered around rice; everybody ate rice every day. And on Friday, one of the traditional things was everybody ate red rice and fish. And so, red rice is rice cooked with tomatoes, and sometimes it has chicken in it and pepper and all the great spices.”
Cultural Heritage Chief Executive and Author Emory Campbell also discuss the food traditions within Gullah Culture, “....the other thing is food, rice. Rice is always — they call us rice-eating Geechees.” He continues, “...people grew rice up in, after slavery. And some people on some of these islands grew rice into the 60s [1960s], you know, the swamp rice where you had to depend on rain water. But in the old plantation days, people grew rice by— from fresh water part of the upland.”
After going into the history of rice amongst the Gullah people, Campbell goes back into the different food types seen within the Gullah community, “....but okra. Sweet potatoes, all-fish.”
Gullah Culture
Real estate entrepreneur and Civic leader Charles E. Simmons (1928-2016) talks a bit about Gullah culture and how it has been attached to the word Geechee, “We were all known as Geechees, but then Geechee was not a culture. Seems like Gullah is really the culture so now to sort of tie it in sometimes it’s referred to as Gullah-Geechee and other times it's just referred to as Gullah.”
Educator and Nonprofit Executive Dolly Adams puts a different spin on Simmons point, “Charleston is one, one of the most - and you’re talking about culture… People came over from West Africa to work in the rice fields and they have kept many of their traditions… I love to go to church down there. They sing very robust, very different. The beat is different.”
Photographer Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe talks about the importance of preserving Gullah culture through the discussion of the land ownership, “...very little is left of the culture and I’d like to get the book reprinted because those pictures can never be taken again. Not just because of time but because the culture is so changed. Many of the people who owned land didn’t really have deeds to the land. Historically it had just been given to them by the plantation owners or the people who owned the land, just didn't give them deeds, they just said, "Here, you can have it." And the land was sold to many of the developers for you know a thousand dollars for seven acres of land. And then the developers would build a home for--and sell it for a hundred thousand dollars. And this was when the development first started happening and they would promise the islanders a piece of property in Savannah [Georgia] or somewhere else on the mainland. And of course they ended up in these little matchbook apartment houses that they moved into and lost their land but the island has since been developed. I think that there's still some native Daufuskians that are still there but the people that I knew and worked with, most of them are gone. So Daufuskie [Daufuskie Island, South Carolina] is--I think there's been some movement in [U.S.] Congress to actually allocate several million dollars to preserving--maybe $20 million to preserving the Geechee and Gullah culture. And this is something that's just recently happened or is about to happen so I hope that--that that is true.”
To sum this topic up, Reverend Dr. Jacquelyn Grant describes how West African traditions have been kept alive in South Carolina, She specifically talks about the bible translations that can be seen in coastal areas of South Carolina, “....Dr. Costen is from South Carolina and has done some work where she draws a connection between what are some of those traits that have been retained in African American worship style that comes from the African culture. I tend to believe that there's continuity between the African, African American experience. I do recognize that there are those who say that we are American, not only American first, but also American only, but then there are those who reject that (unclear) from both cultures and that we did not lose all of it….And I think you will probably see that even from the language, some of the Gullah language. I mean it's difficult, you know, it's difficult for me to understand, the Gullah language. I mean if you're not there and you're not listening to it constantly becomes really difficult to understand. There is a bible even that, a translation of the bible, into the Gullah language that does exist. I'm not sure if it's the entire bible or just the New Testament or in fact just a couple of the Gospels. But that has been translated into Gullah.”
Work Cited
The Honorable Lucille Whipper (The HistoryMakers A2007.039), interviewed by Denise Gines, February 1, 2007, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 3, story 10, The Honorable Lucille Whipper talks about the Gullah language.
Zenobia Washington (The HistoryMakers A2002.222), interviewed by Larry Crowe, December 5, 2002, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 5, Zenobia Washington describes learning the Gullah/Geechee language.
Charles E. Simmons (The HistoryMakers A2007.032), interviewed by Denise Gines, January 29, 2007, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 5, story 4, Charles E. Simmons talks about the Gullah culture.
Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe (The HistoryMakers A2007.008), interviewed by Larry Crowe, January 15, 2007, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 5, story 9, Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe talks about preserving the Gullah culture.
Emory Campbell (The HistoryMakers A2007.035), interviewed by Denise Gines, January 30, 2007, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 3, story 2, Emory Campbell describes the Gullah food traditions.
Reverend Dr. Jacquelyn Grant (The HistoryMakers A2003.183), interviewed by Larry Crowe, August 12, 2003, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 7, story 2, Reverend Dr. Jacquelyn Grant describes how West African traditions have survived in black religion in South Carolina.
Dolly Adams (The HistoryMakers A2012.246), interviewed by Larry Crowe, December 13, 2012, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 5, story 9, Dolly Adams talks about the Gullah culture.
Jack Johnson (The HistoryMakers A2007.163), interviewed by Denise Gines, April 26, 2007, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 3, story 3, Jack Johnson talks about traditional Gullah foods.
Emory Campbell (The HistoryMakers A2007.035), interviewed by Denise Gines, January 30, 2007, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 3, story 1, Emory Campbell talks about the terms Geechee and Gullah.
Clayola Brown (The HistoryMakers A2005.161), interviewed by Larry Crowe, July 13, 2005, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 1, story 6, Clayola Brown talks about the Gullah and Geechee languages.
Jonathan Green (The HistoryMakers A2002.055), interviewed by Julieanna L. Richardson, April 16, 2002, The HistoryMakers Digital Archive. Session 1, tape 2, story 8, Jonathan Green explains the difference between the Geechie and the Gullah.
