The Gullah-Geechee are an African American ethnic group that inhabits the low country regions of Coastal South Carolina and Georgia. The group speaks a creole language of English simply called Gullah which borrows much of it construction and vocabulary from African languages such as Yoruba, Fon, and Mande. As a result of limited contact from the mainland, the Gullah-Geechee have been able to incubate a rich and unique culture of music, storytelling, and signature handicrafts such as sweetgrass basketry. Throughout their history, the Gullah have suffered enslavement, Jim Crow, and a pervasive cultural notion that their language and culture marked them as poor, uneducated, and inferior to others. In spite of centuries of systematic oppression, the Gullah-Geechee have fought hard to preserve their culture with some success. 

Language

In 1949, Lorenzo Dow Turner, a professor of English at Howard University published Africanisms in the Gullah Dialect which revolutionized the way the Gullah-Geechee culture was understood by Academic Mainstream. Though to that point, linguists considered Gullah language to be a form of so-called “broken English,” Turner argued that rather, it had simply applied some English vocabulary on a base of West African language. Instead of being a perversion of a proper language, it was instead a partial continuity of many languages from West Africa. 

“Kumbaya” is a traditional Spiritual that is thoughtPrior to the publishing of Africanisms, many people of Gullah heritage were belittled for expressing their culture. In schools, students were taught to speak standard American English rather than the “backwards” and “ignorant” Gullah dialect. However, Turner argued that Gullah was created not be enslaved people being too foolish to master English, as was the prevailing notion at the time, but rather that Gullah had arisen as a creole language to accommodate communication between people of a diverse set of West African ethnic heritages and English speakers. Instead of being a degradation of one language, it was actually a creative synthesis of many. This book opened the door for preservation of the Gullah dialect, and later on, for the preservation of the rich cultural heritage of the Gullah-Geechee as a whole. 

Kumbaya 
“Kumbaya” is a traditional Spiritual that is thought to have originated in the Gullah Nation. It exists in many forms, but it always asks for God to stand with the suffering. It was first recorded on separate occasions in 1926 by Minnie Lee and Robert Winslow Gordon. It was often called “Come by Here” in early recordings due to a misunderstanding of the phrase “Kumbaya.” On its own, the song is a wonderful example of resistance and resilience. The lyrics hope for a redemption that will follow the horrors of a life in slavery. Its calm, almost dirge like tone, stands in contrast to the violence suffered by the originators of the song. Yet it sows hope and peace, which has withstood centuries of abuse. 

Additionally, though, the song also became a Civil Rights anthem after it was recorded by Pete Seeger and Joan Baez in the late 1950s. It was a central song of the Folk Revival movement which aligned it with progressive political causes during the late 50s and early 60s. In fact, it was even sung on the March from Selma to Montgomery in 1965 because it was so significant to the movement at the time. Though much of this took place outside of Charleston, it still demonstrates the effects of Gullah resilience to the violence and inhumanity of Slavery and Jim Crow. 

Sweetgrass Basketry 

Much like the Gullah dialect which preserves a substantial amount of African vocabulary, Gullah sweetgrass basketry also preserves in it an African tradition. In fact, the style of sweetgrass basket produced in the Lowcountry is nearly identical to that of Africa. This tradition shows to what lengths the Gullah-Geechee have gone to preserve their heritage despite centuries of marginalization. Even in the face of extreme oppression, they still managed to maintain an ancient cultural practice to retain a sense of their unique identities as Gullah people. 

In addition to the high quality of the craft, which works just as well as a utilitarian object as a piece in the Smithsonian, sweetgrass basket making is also an opportunity to express other religious and cultural practices particular to Gullah people. For example, sitting down to weave a basket is also an opportunity to retell traditional folktales if with a group or to “talk to the dead” if alone. Talking to the dead is a practice that resembles many African spiritual practices in which one has contact with their ancestors while on earth and is able to converse with them. It has blended with Protestant Christianity to form a syncretic African American form of religion which is often tapped into in conjunction with other Gullah practices. 

Porgy

Porgy is a 1925 novel by DuBose Heyward that explored life in the segregated housing in Charleston. It was later adapted into a play written with Dorothy Heyward, and then an opera called Porgy and Bess with collaboration between the Heywards and Ira and George Gershwin, two of the most famous songwriters of their day. It also spawned a film adaptation and was the subject of other musical exploration such as Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald’s recordings of some of the songs, and Miles Davis’s big band version of the opera. Needless to say, the novel was extremely influential.

Many of the characters speak in Gullah, and the novel and its adaptations likely represent the most prominent literary use of Gullah. The Gershwins and Heywards elected to use an all-black cast for the initial run, which offered many high-profile roles for black performer which were hard to come by in 1935 when the opera was originally staged. The novel, play, opera, albums, etc. represented a tremendous show of solidarity between white writers and the black performers and subjects. Its highly literary depiction of black life in the inhumane conditions of Charleston’s slums exposed a new audience to the horrors of Jim Crow life. Additionally, it celebrated black life in a way that was uncommon for the time.  

Sources

Campbell, Emory S. “Gullah Geechee Culture: Respected, Understood and Striving: Sixty Years after Lorenzo Dow Turner’s Masterpiece, Africanisms in the Gullah Dialect.” The Black Scholar, vol. 41, no. 1, 2011, pp. 77–84. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.5816/blackscholar.41.1.0077. Accessed 26 Oct. 2020.

Foster, Liz. Annual Sweetgrass Festival. 2020. Post and Courier. (photo)

Goertzen, Chris. “Freedom Songs: Helping Black Activists, Black Residents, and White Volunteers Work Together in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, during the Summer of 1964.” Black Music Research Journal, vol. 36, no. 1, 2016, pp. 59–85. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.5406/blacmusiresej.36.1.0059. Accessed 26 Oct. 2020.

Gullah Geechee Nation, Official Flag, https://gullahgeecheenation.com

Zachary H. Hart, et al. “Community Participation in Preservation of Lowcountry South Carolina Sweetgrass (Muhlenbergia Filipes [M. A. Curtis] J. Pinson and W. Batson) Basketry.” Economic Botany, vol. 58, no. 2, 2004, pp. 161–171. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/4256802. Accessed 26 Oct. 2020.

Porgy and Bess Film Poster. 1959. Columbia Pictures

Rogers, Chris. Gullah Choir. 2019. Hilton Head Island Gullah Celebration.

Rosengarten, Dale. “Babylon Is Falling: The State of the Art of Sweetgrass Basketry.” Southern Cultures, vol. 24, no. 2, 2018, pp. 98–124. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/26478238. Accessed 26 Oct. 2020.

Starr, Lawrence. “Toward a Reevaluation of Gershwin's Porgy and Bess.” American Music, vol. 2, no. 2, 1984, pp. 25–37. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/3051656. Accessed 2 Nov. 2020.

Turner, Lorenzo. Africanisms in the Gullah Dialect. University of South Carolina Press, 1949.

Uccello, Nina. Sweetgrass Basketmaker. Charleston. ​​​​​​​(painting)

Winick, Stephen. "The World's First 'Kumbaya' Moment: New Evidence about an Old Song"(PDF). Folklife Center News, Library of Congress. 2010. Retrieved March 1, 2014.