Gullah Geechee Preservation

 When I was in fourth grade, a group of Gullah ladies came to my school to educate us about the Gullah Geechee culture, language, and their music. The Gullah Geechee are African American descendants of West and Central Africans brought to the South Eastern coast of America in the slave trade. Most South Carolina Gullah ancestors were rice growers from Angola, Sierra Leone; rice became a cash crop in South Carolina when they were brought here. Enslaved Africans were isolated on rice, cotton, and indigo plantations in Georgia, Florida, and North and South Carolina. Because of this isolation and the surrounding barrier islands, they were able to maintain their indigenous African culture and traditions. In addition to their unique foods, art, and spiritual traditions, they created the Gullah language, a creole language spoken nowhere else in the world. The language, originally a simplified form of speech for people from all over Africa to communicate, is a combination of European languages and African speech patterns and grammar. Many predicted Gullah would die out over time, but despite forced land evictions, climate change, and impoverished conditions, Gullah has remained a language spoken by Gullah Geechee people in internal settings, with about 200,000 native speakers remaining. This language has influenced speech patterns and inflections of people living in the lowcountry today.

a small selection of English and Gullah words side by side

An act of Congress through the National Heritage Areas Act of 2006 resulted in the creation of The Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, running from Pender County North Carolina to St. John’s County Florida. This 400-mile long coastal corridor acts to preserve, celebrate, and bring awareness to the historically unique culture of the Gullah Geechee people. 

My favorite Gullah tradition is the making of sweetgrass baskets. My whole life there have been African American men biking down highway 17 that runs through Charleston with baskets of sweetgrass, carrying it to women who sell sweetgrass baskets along the highway. Every baseball game I go to there are young African American boys passing out sweetgrass flowers that they made to the girls. This was entirely normal for me, and it wasn’t until I was in middle school that I realized this was unique to my area. Sweetgrass baskets were originally designed by the Gullah people as a tool for the production of rice. In the spirit of keeping Gullah Geechee tradition alive, descendants make them to this day to sell as decorative art. They call this area "Sweetgrass Highway".

One of the Sweetgrass Basket stands I pass on the way home

Here is an article about sweetgrass baskets in my town, if you’d like to know more about them. 

https://experiencemountpleasant.com/live_like_a_local/sweetgrass-baskets-mount-pleasant-tradition/

Boone Hall Plantation is known as the most famous historical plantation in South Carolina, and I’m lucky enough to have grown up within walking distance of it. It’s a very tourist friendly place now, where they obviously try hard to share the truth about America’s greatest shame. Slave houses are left standing for us to see and learn about. 

Gullah woman presenting about her culture and the slavery history of Boone Hall

Me picking strawberries at Boone Hall

Gullah Music

Gullah music, largely about conditions of slavery, is inspired by African rhythms, spirituals, and blues. Common Gullah instruments include the banjo, harmonica, and the fiddle. 

Types of Gullah music

Hambone is probably the most notable and well-known form of Gullah music. It’s a sort of rhythmic dance, involving slapping the body and stomping feet to create polyrhythms. Hamboning was created by slaves who were not allowed to have drums. 

Another prime example of Gullah music is the “ring shout”, a religious dance accompanied by hand drums and other percussive instruments originating from the West African tradition of communal dance. It’s called this because participants stand in a circle and move counterclockwise while singing and clapping. The singing is in call and response form. 

Some notable Gullah musicians are The McIntosh County Shouters, and the blues guitarist, Cootie Stark, and most memorable, Gullah Jack. Gullah Jack, born in Angola and shipped to America as a slave in the 17th century, produced music that portrayed the combination of gospel, blues, and African Rhythms. 

Gullah Fun Facts!

1. The term “juke” means “to dance”. The word actually comes from Gullah. 

2. Genres of gospel music, ragtime, rhythm and blues, soul, hip hop and jazz all take some influence from Gullah music, particularly jazz and blues. Dizzy Gillepsie and Duke Ellington both utilized elements of Gullah music in their own music. 

3. I am currently working on a flute solo called “Fish are Jumping” by Robert Dick. It’s filled with all sorts of extended techniques like glissandi and harmonics to mimic the sound of an electric guitar. The title of the composition is based on the lyrics of “Summertime” from George Gershwin’s opera, Porgy and Bess (which is set in Charleston).  

“Summertime

And the livin' is easy

Fish are jumpin'

And the cotton is high

Oh, your daddy's rich

And your ma' is good lookin'

So hush

Little baby

Don't you cry”

During my research of Gullah music, I discovered that Gershwin actually took a lot of inspiration and ideas for this opera from the Gullah Geechee culture! During a trip to Folly Beach he attended a predominantly black church service where he witnessed first hand the foot stomping, swaying, and clapping of Gullah Geechee music. 

Gershwin on Folly Beach- 30 minutes from my house!

Ranky Tanky

Ranky Tanky is a band that means a lot to me and my city. These College of Charleston graduates do jazz-influenced arrangements of traditional Gullah music to keep their culture alive and well-known. They rose quickly to popularity- their debut album released in October of 2017. By February, it was number one in the Billboard jazz charts for two weeks. Their album Good Time won the 2020 Grammy Award for Best Regional Roots Music Album. They won a second Grammy in the same category for Live at the 2022 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. NPR’s Banning Eyre stated, “on the self-titled debut by the quintet Ranky Tanky, Gullah songs are lively, soulful honey to the ears...in a pop music milieu ever hungry for newness, this group proves that the right musicians can make the past new all over again” (Eyre-2018). Ranky Tanky does a fantastic job of bringing contemporary music and Gullah traditional vocabulary and rhythm together.

Andrea. 2022. “History of Gullah Music.” JAS - Jazz Aspen Snowmass. June 27, 2022. https://jazzaspensnowmass.org/history-of-gullah-music/.

‌“Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor (U.S. National Park Service).” n.d. Www.nps.gov. https://www.nps.gov/places/gullah-geechee-cultural-heritage-corridor.htm.

“Gullah | Language | Britannica.” 2019. In Encyclopædia Britannica. https://www.britannica.com/topic/Gullah-language.

‌Hart, Robert. 2023. “Gullah Music: From Jack to Jazz.” Edisto Island. March 10, 2023. https://edistoisland.com/gullah-music-from-jack-to-jazz/.

‌“The Lowcountry’s Jazz Age: Gift of Story and Song.” 2009. S.C. Sea Grant Consortium. October 10, 2009. https://www.scseagrant.org/lowcountry-jazz-age-gift-of-story-and-song/.

‌