Contents

Foreword Going Home: How a Long-Lost Culture Is Rising from Oblivion, by Emory Shaw Campbell Acknowledgments Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Notes Bibliography Index Welcome Home! Catching the Learning A Quantum Leap Growing Up Gullah Hallelujah! Healing and Folk Medicine The Mellifluous Gullah Tongue Geography Feasting the Stomach Festivals and Celebrations Music, Song, and Dance Roots

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Foreword

How a Long-Lost Culture Is Rising from Oblivion

Since long before Americas independence, the nation has had hidden
pockets of a bygone African culture, rich in native history, with a language of its own, and long endowed with beguiling talents in its traditions, language, design, medicine, agriculture, fishing, hunting, weaving, and arts. Although thousands of articles and hundreds of books have been written on discoveries of Native American cultures and Indian lore, the Gullah/Geechee culture has been almost totally overlooked. It is known only to a handful of North Americans, mainly professional historians whose findings have been published in specialized journals and scholarly books. This book, authored by a longtime historian, explores what very few yet know as a direct link to the African continent, an almost lost culture that exists in the Sea Islands of the United States, along a corridor stretching from the northeast coast of Florida along the Georgia and South Carolina coastal shores to the Wilmington, North Carolina, area, and little more than 50 miles inland at any point. The first published evidence of this culture went almost unnoticed until the 1860s, when northern missionaries made their way south, even as the Civil War was at its height, to the Sea Islands of South Carolina, where they established a small school to help former slaves learn how to read and write and vii

Going Home

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Gullah Culture in America

make a living in a world of upheaval and distress. One of these schools evolved into the distinguished Penn School. There they noticed that most of the native island blacks spoke a language that was only part English, tempered with expressions and idioms, often spoken in a melodious, euphonic manner. Yet this was the barest beginning, for the language carried over into other forms of communication and expressiveness, ranging from body movements and the use of hand and head movements to the rituals of religion, work, dancing, greetings, and the arts. The homogeneity, richness, and consistency of this culture were made possible by the fortunate fact that these peoples maintained a solidarity over the generations because they were isolated from other peoples and cultures. Thus they were able to maintain their heritage, language, and traditions, unlike other peoples of African and foreign lineage who came to Americas shores and over the years blended in with other cultures, as they did in the northern or southern cities and the more heavily populated upper regions of Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina. Even today there are more than 300,000 Gullah-speaking people living in the remoter areas of the Sea Islands, such as St. Helena, Edisto, Coosaw, Ossabaw, Sapelo, Daufuskie, and Cumberland. Part of this book focuses on the engrossing story of sea islanders of Gullah descent who traveled in groups to the region in 1989, 1998, and 2005 to trace their origins and ancestry, later exploring Sierra Leone and other parts of West Africa. I was fortunate enough to have been involved with the research into these West African origins, along with one of the most noted authorities in this field, Joseph Opala, an anthropologist who had made some remarkable studies about Bunce Island, in the harbor of Freetown, Sierra Leone, where in the 18th century thousands of captured Africans were held temporarily to be boarded on ships bound for South Carolina and Georgia. Many subjects of pertinent interest are included, beginning with a brief introduction to the Gullah heritage and culture in America, its roots, the location and extent of its peoples, its current history and beliefs, and most importantly its exuberance, imagery, color, and contributions to the world we live in. One of the most unusual accounts describes the way in which a young black American linguist, Lorenzo Dow Turner, ventured into the remotest reaches of the Sea Islands of Georgia and the Carolinas in the early 1930s to begin the first sci-

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entific investigation of the Gullah peoples and culture. Astonishinglyunlike Native American cultures, which were studied many generations ago by sociologiststhe Gullah history and heritage were virtually unknown, even in the Southeast, until the Turner studies were made. Even then, his work faded from public knowledge, and the Gullah culture lapsed again, almost into oblivion, until a slow revival began in the last quarter of the 20th century. One book alone, covering an entire culture, cannot do more than give its readers a broad panorama of the subject. Yet, remarkably, the chapters in the Gullah history also present a wealth of detail that allows readers to experience the drama, the color, the romance, and the vitality of Gullah, and in effect meet many of the personalities who have played a partpast and present in making it what it is today. The author, using personal and historical research, recounts interviews with Gullah people who have described what it was like to grow up in the old traditions. He takes the reader on a tour of praise houses, where enslaved Africans and their descendants practiced religion, not only with the familiar spirituals, but with expressions of faith, joy, hardship, hope, and repentance in shouts, which begin slowly with the shuffling of feet and the clapping of hands, followed by louder and louder expressions of reverence. He introduces the reader to one of the most bewitching aspects of the Gullah culture: its practices of healing and folk medicine. Though originating hundreds of years ago, in many cases these practices have been proven to be scientifically effective and some are the forerunners of medications developed in the present century. As one who is recognized today for my fluency in the Gullah language and my many assignments to translate it, I was particularly pleased to see the chapter on our speech, which takes the reader on a rewarding and effective road to discovery of the origins and usages of words, phrases, and idiom. And I recommend to you the joys of reading about Gullah foods and recipes, festivals and celebrations, music, song, and dance, and the unbelievable origins of that side of the culture that brings joy to the heart. In retrospect, it is difficult to realize that so many of the uplifting aspects of this unique culture were born in the darkest daysof slavery and inhumanity and torture and discrimination. How Gullah people rose from the ashes to revive and live their culture in the most positive of ways is truly a fascinating and inspiring story.

Gullah Culture in America

I can state without reservation that you will reach the end of the chapters with a sense of great human accomplishment, and you will want to pass the book along to others to let them know what the human body, spirit, and soul can accomplish under even the greatest duress.
Emory Shaw Campbell Executive Director Emeritus, Penn Center, St. Helena Island, South Carolina

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North Carolina

40

Wilmington

So uth Ca rol i n a
O FR
M

Little River
S

R HO

17

Myrtle Beach

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30

S ILE

Georgetown

Charleston
E OC AN

16

Beaufort Savannah
AT L T AN IC

Georgia

Brunswick Jacksonville
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The Gullah Corridor

Florida
The Gullah Corridor is an area stretching from the southern border of North Carolina down to the Florida line and 30 miles inland.