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Source: Black Issues in Higher Education
Publication date: 2005-05-05
Arrival time: 2005-05-17


Time is of the essence in the study, legislation and preservation of Gullah/Geechee culture, and grass-roots activists are leading the way.
Vera Manigault makes Sweetgrass baskets at the Charles Pinckney National Historic Site, Mt.Pleasant, S.C.

For generations, scholars theorized that Gullah/Geechee language and culture originated among populations of Africans enslaved on South Carolina and Georgia rice plantations. But some of them also maintained that the culture could only be found in a few isolated pockets on remote islands off the South Carolina and Georgia coasts. This is the view romanticized in films such as Julie Dash's "Daughters of the Dust" and novels like Gloria Naylor's Mama Day.
Gullah and Geechee - they're two words whose origins no one really knows, describing a culture whose significance only a handful of scholars have claimed to understand.

That could all change, however, if U.S. Rep. James E. Clyburn, D-S.C., has his way. Clyburn is on the verge of seeing H.R. 694, the Gullah/Geechee Cultural Heritage Act, pass both houses of Congress with strong bipartisan support. This legislation, which authorizes spending $2 million per year for up to 10 years to establish a Gullah/Geechee Heritage Corridor, could make Gullah and Geechee household words and change the shape of the American history curriculum.

"The Gullah bill has passed the House with unanimous approval and is now awaiting action in the Senate. Last year the Senate passed a similar measure, so I am hopeful they will give the bill overwhelming support when it comes up for a vote," Clyburn says, adding that action on the bill can't come a moment too soon.

"Time is of the essence in preserving the Gullah culture," he explains. "The passage of time is like the waves slowly eroding the beach - as more time passes we lose more of the Gullah land, tradition and language. It is imperative that this legislation is implemented as soon as possible so we can begin the important work of preserving this culture rather than relegate it to a footnote in history books."

Marquette Goodwine, founder of the Gullah-Geechee Sea Island Coalition, is pictured with her son at the Sullivan's Island marker at Fort Moultrie.
From footnote to front page - that's Clyburn's goal. And what's fascinating about what he's about to achieve is the relative lack of leadership by the scholarly community. Researchers may indeed have been laboring for nearly a century in the disciplines of anthropology, linguistics and history, among others, to document Gullah and Geechee culture, but the charge here is being led by an extraordinary grass-roots coalition.

Anchored by local Gullah activists and "art-ivists," preservationists and environmental groups, amateur history buffs, tourism agencies and entrepreneurs, this multiracial, multifaceted group - jokingly called "the Gullah Mafia" by Joseph Opala, an anthropologist and documentary filmmaker from James Madison University - has attracted the support of major foundations, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and, most importantly, the National Park Service. Their aim? Well, in effect, it appears to be to rewrite American history.

"We've spent five years chasing a dream and now we're moving into reality," says Michael Allen, a member in good standing of the "mafia." Alien is the National Parks Service education specialist who led the research team that supported Clyburn 's efforts.

"Personally, professionally, spiritually from whatever perspective you could namethis has been a good journey. And now we're hoping the work we've done can serve as a guide for others," he says.

Cynthia Porcher, a member of Allen's team and the principal researcher on the NPS report describing the "national significance" of Gullah/Geechee culture, notes that preservation groups will be the first to see the fruits of the team's labors.
"I didn't go into a single (Gullah) community where there wasn't grass-roots work being done. These people have not been waiting around with their hands out for Congress to come in and save them," she says.

But now the difficult hand they had been dealt includes two aces. First, the designation of the Gullah-Geechee Coast as one of the 11 most endangered historic places in the United States by the National Trust for Historic Preservation - for which Porcher wrote the nomination. And second, the nearly 300-page NPS report co-authored by Porcher and others on the team. It has a dry, academic title - the "Low Country Gullah Culture Special Resources Survey and Environmental Impact Statement" - but it may well be one of the most exciting and compelling pieces of research on Gullah/Geechee culture of this century.

The report clears up some widely held misconceptions about Gullah language and culture, and it does so by actually talking to people who claim Gullah/Geechee identity, asking how they define themselves and their culture. Their insight is placed on equal footing with the written record of scholars - the vast majority of whom, it must be admitted, learned what they know of the culture from relatively limited research contacts and from books.

This approach has changed the very definition of Gullah/Geechee culture.
Allen and Porcher's research among coastal populations confirms that the land mass of the Gullah/Geechee coast is, in fact, quite large. Stretching from the Cape Fear River near the North Carolina/ South Carolina line to St. Augustine, Fla., - home of a large community of "maroons," or runaway slaves, who carved out freedom for themselves among the Seminoles of Spanish Florida - the area actually covers some 12,315 square miles. That is to say, it's nearly the size of Maryland.

Charles "Ce Ce" Williams, net maker, McClellanville, S.C.
Far from being the story of isolated pockets of humanity struggling to hold on to a few vanishing traditions from a distant African past, the Gullah/Geechee story has vast implications - especially if one considers that there are estimates that around one- quarter of the current African-American population of the United States can claim descent from people who entered the United Slates at the port of Charleston, the center of the Gullah/Geechee Coast.

The story of Gullah/Geechee people is, thus, inextricably linked to major moments in American history. It goes beyond the African slave trade and the development of rice and cotton culture, and also includes armed resistance to slavery - from the Stono Rebellion to the Denmark Vesey conspiracy to the Seminole Wars in Florida-and much more.

"A lot of this hasn't made its way into mainstream scholarship, and the reason is that specialists don't talk to each other," Opala says. "I constantly talk to historians who either don't get some of the recent findings in linguistics and anthropology, or who don't believe them because they lack familiarity with the research methodologies. In that way, I think the construction of the heritage corridor will be very helpful to the research community."

Amy Roberts isn't a scholar, but she can think of some very concrete ways the heritage corridor can be of assistance to her. Roberts grew up on St. Simons Island, home of Ibo Landing - the place where a group of newly landed Africans is said to have taken one look at their new surroundings and, depending on the source, dropped their chains and flew back to Africa; walked on water back to Africa; or walked back into the water, using the weight of their chains to drown themselves - again assuring a return to Africa.

Roberts is the executive director of the all-volunteer St. Simons Island (Ga.) African-American Heritage Coalition, a group that works to help local people hold onto their land and preserve their heritage. One example of their innovative community work is the "Don't Ask, Won't Sell" campaigns, in which members posted signs on their property proclaiming their " commitment to hold onto ancestral lands. In addition, the coalition is partnering with two "White" organizations, Glenn County Greenspace and the St. Simons Island Land Trust, to purchase, renovate and open the Harrington School as an African-American heritage museum.

The heritage corridor represents hope to Roberts and the other members of her coalition. "It's very exciting. I'm super-excited," she says. "We hope by the time the money comes down the pike, we'll have things in place to take advantage of it - like the school, the historic markers for baptism sites and Ibo Landing, and other things," she says.
Bernie Wright, executive director of The Penn Center, a former freedman's school in Beaufort, S.C., that sponsors a wide variety of preservation and scholarly initiatives, echoes Roberts' excitement.

"To me, this means putting Gullah and Geechee culture in a national spotlight. For the first time, we'll have the backing of the federal system-a budget line from the federal government. This will bring in a lot of things on its coattails if this gets passed. And it's going to make our kids proud and really help them understand this rich history," he says.
Opala agrees. Having taught in Sierra Leone and twice escorted groups of slave descendants to visit their "Family Across the Sea"- the title of one of his three documentary films-Opala sees rich potential for international exchanges in the Gullah/Geechee corridor's \future.

"We've already established the links between Bunce Island," a slave castle off the coast of Sierra Leone, "and the heritage area through Henry Laurens, a Charleston slave trader [in the 18th century] who helped establish trading posts for Bunce Island slaves in Charleston, Savannah and St. Augustine."
Indeed, working with historian Edward Ball, author of the National Book Award-winning Slaves in the Family, Opala has established an unbroken paper trail tracing the odyssey of "Priscilla," a 10-year-old enslaved child, from her capture in Sierra Leone to her loading onto a Rhode Island slave ship at Bunce Island to her eventual sale in Charleston. Priscilla's direct descendant, Thomalind Martin Polite, will be arriving in Sierra Leone on an official state visit on May 26, Opala says.

"Bunce Island is the most important site in the slave trade for North America. Once the heritage corridor is established, there will be a direct link to Africa. When Bunce develops, not only are there going to be New Englanders and Southerners traveling to Africa, but there are also going to be Africans coming here," he adds.
"One day everyone in this country will know this story."

A Brief Guide to Gullah Traditions

IS IT GULLAH OR GEECHEE?

Some say Gullah is preferred by South Carolina folks, Geechee by Georgia. Others say that Geechee is used by urban folks, Gullah by rural. The truth is, no one really knows, and the terms are used pretty much interchangeably by Low Country Blacks.

SWEETGRASS BASKETS
These decorative baskets, once produced as household items and now produced as museum pieces that can be worth thousands of dollars, are almost identical to the style of basket sewn in the Mano River Valley of Liberia.

EATING RICE
The staple dish of Blacks and Whites in the Low Country, it can be highly spiced and mixed with other ingredients ("red rice" and "perloo"), topped with gravy in meat dishes or smothered beneath that other Low Country staple, "okra soup."

SWEPT DIRT YARDS INSTEAD OF GRASS
As late as the 1960s, one might come across these vestiges of life in West Africa, usually in rural areas but occasionally in the city as well.

PASSING THE YOUNGEST CHILD OVER THE GRAVE OF A NEWLY DECEASED RELATIVE
This practice, aimed at keeping the spirit of the deceased from plaguing the most vulnerable member of the community, had fallen into disuse, but the practice is being revived as Low Country residents begin to take pride in their Geechee roots.

SHOUTING
This is a distinctive style of worship, involving polyrhythmic hand claps combined with harmonies that sound as if they were straight out of Africa. Shouting is still relatively common in Low Country churches.

THAT GEECHEE TALK
Contrary to popular belief, Gullah -"that Geechee talk" - is still spoken in the Low Country, though to untutored ears, it probably sounds a lot like English with strong Low Country intonations and some rather unusual syntax. Interestingly enough, Gullah as it was spoken in the last century still survives - but in Oklahoma and Texas, among the descendants of the Black Seminoles who fought in the Seminole Wars and traveled West with their Indian kin in the negotiated settlement that ended them. Those Black Seminoles still eat rice, too.
-K.H.

Trident Technical College Incorporates Gullah/Geechee History Into Curriculum

The Gullah/Geechee heritage story is being used in innovative ways in the postsecondary classroom - and this cutting-edge work is happening not at the state's flagship university, but in its technical college system.
Dr. Tim Brown, dean of humanities and social sciences at Trident Technical College in Charleston, was the principal investigator for a National Endowment for the Humanities focus grant that funded creation of the innovative new curriculum.

The plan was simple, Brown explains. Approximately 15 faculty members were chosen from the disciplines of philosophy, English, art history, sociology, psychology and history. For one weekend out of each month in spring 2004, the core group participated in a seminar, titled "Lasting Vestiges of West African Culture and Their Defining Influences on the Culture of the Low Country."

The seminar exposed the Trident team to advanced research from faculty around the nation working in history, art history, literature and anthropology. Supplementing the scholarly fare were artist talks by documentary filmmakers, storytellers and performers, all with an aim toward giving the faculty a thorough grounding in Gullah/Geechee history and folklore. Using that information, they designed a series of projects to infuse Gullah/Geechee history and heritage into the curriculum in their respective disciplines. Those projects are being implemented this academic year.

It's an unusual approach for a technical school to take, notes Dr. Roger West, an English professor on the faculty. "We have a basic mission, which is teaching - there's no publish-or-perish pressure here. But we're also fortunate that the idea of professional development is something the administration encourages."

There's the added factor that, as a state, South Carolina has embraced a forward-looking international slant on technical education. Fourteen of the state's 16 technical schools belong to the South Carolina International Education Consortium, a collective that fosters international awareness among students and professional development opportunities abroad for faculty. West serves as SCIEC's executive director.

But while Trident faculty are spreading the word about their work at professional conferences - including those sponsored by the SCIEC - West stresses, "Of course, it's the reception in the classroom that everyone is talking about. And it's not just with our African- American students - it's our White students, too."

In sociology, the Gullah/Geechee story has found its way into "Self and Society," a team-taught class that introduces students to the discipline. Instructor Sandy Lopez's Web description of the course explains that it "uses the social context" of the students' lives to introduce concepts of thinking globally about race/ ethnicity, economics and culture.

Dr. Barbara Tucker, meanwhile, has managed to find an innovative approach in philosophy. Using Gullah/Geechee ways of seeing the world and interacting with the environment to interrogate the foundations of Western political thought, Tucker is having it both ways - teaching traditional Western philosophy as well as non- Western thought.

But it is in West's English course that the campus' 11,000 students are most likely to encounter these new ideas. Trident custom-publishes the reader used in its freshman composition classes. This year, the school began including essays on Gullah/ Geechee culture in the volume.

"And that reader has a big impact" both on faculty and on the students, says Brown. "We ordered 3,400 copies of that reader last fall so that represents 3,400 opportunities to spread information about Gullah to our students here and at the high-school level, too," because of the school's dual enrollment program allowing students to earn college credit while still in high school.

In West's English class, students read the essays on Gullah culture and watched the documentary "Family Across the Sea" - in which a group of Gullah speakers from South Carolina arrived in Sierra Leone in the early 1990s to discover that they understood the language and that the Africans also understood them. Then students were asked to look around them and write about the ways in which they could see this culture expressed in their lives and in contemporary South Carolina culture.

Some of the essays that emerged were quite moving, West notes. "One kid wrote, I am Geechee and I've been Geechee all my life, but this is the first time I've understood what that really means.' The student thought the class was going to be demeaning of the culture, but instead he came away with a completely different perspective on his life," West says. "I get the same response even from the White students - they recognize things that they see and hear from their own lives, and suddenly they have a context. They understand that these things come from the vital role the slaves played in the development of South Carolina culture," West continues.

Trident's success is inspiring emulation from other campuses - and not just in the counties along the coastal plain where Gullah/ Geechee culture is concentrated. In the far northwest corner of the state, West cites the example of an instructor at Greenville Technical College who's ripping up his history syllabus. "There's a real sense of excitement because this is information that has been ignored, but it's truly significant to the state and the region."

Changing the state of knowledge for an entire educational system might be enough for some, but the folks at the Low Country campus don't appear to be content to rest on their laurels.
Another Dr. West - Donald West from the history department - is building on the success of the NEH grant by seeking Fulbright funding. His plan is to send faculty from Trident, from other schools in the SCIEC and even from the state's K-12 division to Liberia and Sierra Leone.

"It seems strange, but many times faculty in African-American history don't have the chance to travel to Africa. So this is an opportunity for a large, mixed group to become familiar with what's different as well as what's similar in African culture," West says.
And the potential impact such a group could have on education in South Carolina is tremendous, notes Brown.

He adds that he can't escape the feeling that what is happening - both at Trident and around the region - is "very significant and important to the area. When you look around, it's clear that Gullah culture is not as strong as 40 years ago with all the development that has taken place in the community. Our efforts in making sure that this culture is not forgotten are\n't just raising our students' awareness - they are causing some of our students to be advocates for preserving the culture.

"In the future they're going to be the ambassadors for the things Congressman Clyburn is working for."
-K.H.
Copyright Cox, Matthews & Associates, Inc. May 5, 2005
Publication date: 2005-05-05

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