Gullah Geechee African Americans are the descendants of West African slaves who live in the Lowlands of South Carolina and Georgia. They trace their ancestry to a blend of African people, taken and sold into slavery from Africa’s Rice and Gold Coasts. Over the centuries, their relative isolation and the community has created and preserved a unique culture; one that many Americans are unaware of.
With the industrialization and increased mobility of the United States, that isolation has eroded with it. The Gullah culture slowly began to fade away; now deemed almost extinct. One example is the ring shout, the product of an Afro-Christian syncretic practice. The participants gather in a circle, clapping their hands, stamping their feet, and sometimes pounding out a rhythm in sticks. When the feeling strikes, participants enter a euphoric state – an evangelical Christian conversion experience that the participants interpret as channeling the Holy Spirit. [1]
Many Gullah also no longer have unfettered access to the cemeteries where their family is buried. The cemeteries have been subsumed by resorts and gated communities. In order to visit the cemeteries, they must seek permission. [2] This also makes it difficult to follow the traditional funeral rituals, which involve displays of music and prayer. [3] Real estate development has also driving up prices, making it fiscally difficult for younger generations of Gullah Geechee to purchase land.
There have been some efforts to preserve and share Gullah Geechee history and culture. Savannah-based public historian Amir Jamal Touré runs a tour and cultural organization called Day Clean Soul, named after the Gullah philosophy of life, “each day is a new day; each day starts anew; no matter what occurred yesterday – today is a new day!”[4] Tours, programs, and living history workshops run in English, Gullah, Krio, early African Seminole Crole, and Geechee.
Photographer Pete Marovich, a D.C.-based freelance photographer spent months among the Gullah Geechee communities of the Sea Island. The photographs will be published in a limited addition book later this month.
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[1] Joseph A. Opala, “Gullah Customs and Traditions,” URL: www.yale.edu.glc/Gullah/05.htm
[2] Pete Marovich Images, URL: www.petemarovichimages.com/product/shadows-of-the-gullah-geechee-book
[3] Joseph A. Opala, “Gullah Customs and Traditions,” URL: www.yale.edu.glc/Gullah/05.htm
[4] daycleansoul.com/index.html
[5] Pete Marovich Images, URL: www.petemarovichimages.com/product/shadows-of-the-gullah-geechee-book
