The Gullah in Retrospect

© 2004 Àwòtunde Yáò Fáşęyίn

Sometime in the year 1520 a Spanish explorer, Vasquez de Allyon found a cluster of islands off the coast of South Carolina. The very fertile ground, aesthetics, temperature, humidity, and diseases of those islands resembled that of Western Afrika. De Allyon associated these similarities with Sierra Leone, home of the Mende Tribe. He instantly named those islands Santa Elena.

Because of the similarities on these islands with Sierra Leone, West Afrika, principally the, marshes, climate and texture of the soil it was possible to grow rice, indigo, cotton, and spices which brought a high price on the European market. The warm, semi-tropical climate of the Sea Islands makes Georgia and South Carolina a perfect location for the cultivation of rice. Rice cultivation was a special skill that captives from Sierra Leone possessed which made them highly prized in slave trading. The inhabitants of Sierra Leone, particularly members of the Mende tribe, and inhabitants of the surrounding nations were experienced in growing these crops and were able therefore to survive the climate, and diseases that were wide spread. At the start, it was from this Sierra Leone region tens of thousands of Afrikans were stripped from their homeland and families to be transported across the sea. They were brought here in 1526 against their will and retained on these islands for the sole purpose of growing these crops. 

Historians characterize slavery as being introduced in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619. Jamestown was an English penal Colony, one of the Colonies that was to become the United States of the Americas. Since South Carolina was a part of the thirteen original English Colonies, it should be underscored that slavery in what is now recognized as the United States of America was introduced on Santa Helena Island in 1526. Technical slavery ended on St. Helena Island, and in the United States of America, when the Union troops were poised on Port Royal Island in 1862. With the positioning of Union troops on Port Royal Island, the slaveholders fled the area. Therefore, it would be accurate to describe St. Helena as the birthplace of slavery in the United States, and where it was abolished 336 years later in 1862.

From ca. 1700-1800, over 50,000 slaves were imported by South Carolina and Georgia planters from the Windward Coast of Afrika, specifically, the Senegambia, Sierra Leone, and Liberia, to cultivate large plantations in the growing of rice and cotton. Ethnic and cultural groups from this area included the Djolas, Wolof, Serer, Mandinga, Mende, Temne and Vai. Despite antislavery importation laws enacted in Georgia in 1799, slaves quickly outnumbered their masters on the Sea Islands. Slaves from Sierra Leone were often purchased in Charleston, South Carolina and Savannah, Georgia to be taken to isolated communities in Georgia such as Sapelo Island and Harris Neck where their unique Afrikan culture was preserved.

The Journey

Before making it to the Americas, their first stop was Bunce Island located on the Sierra Leone River near Freetown. This was a holding place for Afrikans being sold as slaves and specialized in sending slaves to the Sea Islands of South Carolina. Slaves from this region had direct experience in agriculture, particularly rice farming and were often sold at a higher price. They brought not only their labor and knowledge of rice but also their culture: a culture that still thrives today.

It should be noted that though Bunce Island was located in Sierra Leone, and that this post was set up particularly to send Afrikans from Sierra Leone to the islands, in time there came to be a total of 21 Afrikan ethnicities among the Sea Island Afrikans (see table listing at the bottom of this page). 23,773 slaves came to South Carolina from Africa between 1804 through 1807, and 14,217 of these originated from Angola, Congo, or "Congo and Angola". The newly arrived slaves breathed new life into Afrikan traditions already established on the islands. Furthermore, due to the domestic slave trade within the United States, many other Afrikans from several regions along the West Coast Motherland were intermingled with the Sierra Leone group in an effort to produce a whole new slave culture.

Since each tribe spoke their own dialect, it was difficult for those that were retained here to communicate at first, and therefore a unique language was developed. The descendants of those slaves that were brought there in 1526 are still living on St. Helena Island, and have retained their unique Culture, and language, which is commonly alluded to as the "GULLAH".  

On to a New Day

Near the end of the Civil War in November 1862, some 12,000 Union troops landed on Hilton Head Island, across the Port Royal sound from Lands End on St. Helena. The Union forces proceeded toward Beaufort, seizing control of the nearby Islands including St. Helena where more than 10,000 slaves were kept. As the plantation owners fled the area, the slaves were unofficially free. As previously mentioned, slavery began on Santa. Elena in 1526, it should be noted that when the Union troops landed on Hilton Head Island in 1861, that signaled the end of 335 years of slavery.

The Culture

Gullah, as a vernacular, is a creole form of English, indigenous to the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia (the area extends from Georgetown, SC to the Golden Isles of Georgia above Florida). Like all creoles, Gullah began as a pidgin language, transforming into a language in its own right with the first generation born in America. A similar form of plantation creole may have been widespread at one time in the southern United States, but Gullah now differs from other "Afrikan-American" dialects of English (which do not vary greatly from the standard syntax, pronunciation and vocabulary). Though creole languages the world over share a surprisingly similar structure, the speakers of one creole can seldom understand speakers of another on first contact.

According to David Crystal in The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Language, the word "comes from Portuguese crioulo and originally meant a person of European descent who had been born and brought up in a colonial territory. Later, it came to be applied to other people who were native to these areas, and then to the kind of language they spoke." Creole languages have been spoken on every inhabited continent, and are "English based," "French based" – even "Romany based" like Sheldru, used by Gypsies in England. Krio, spoken in Sierra Leone, is just one example of an English-based creole with many similarities to Gullah -- the creole language of the Sea Islands.

Most of Gullah vocabulary is of English origin, but the grammar and major elements of pronunciation come from a number of West Afrikan language, such as Ewe, Mandinka, Igbo, Twi and Yoruba. The name, "Gullah", itself probably derives from "Angola" (and possibly from the large number of slaves who arrived from that part of Africa in the early 1800s). "Geechee" -- another name for the language and culture of Black Sea Islanders -- comes from a tribal name in Liberia. Traditions, language and myth stayed longer with the coastal Carolina Gullahs, who were allowed a greater latitude of self-sufficiency and were relatively isolated on the Sea Islands.

Most Beaufort slaves in the first decades of the 1800s may have been first-generation Afrikan arrivals. So it was not merely the remoteness of the Sea Islands that preserved the Afrikan culture and language influences among Gullah speakers. As I mentioned earlier, 23,773 slaves came to South Carolina from Afrika between 1804 through 1807, and 14,217 of these originated from Angola, Congo, or "Congo and Angola". The newly arrived slaves breathed new life into African traditions already established on the islands. A new infusion of pidgin influences would have had a profound impact on the existing creole language.

As with many minority languages the world over, television, education and increased social contact have all undermined Gullah to a large extent. In spite of this, the Gullah culture has survived and speaks as a profound testiment to the warrior spirit of Afrikan culture. It is a statement that says that by no means will there not be a fight when you attempt to take our culture. And by all means will we attain unto cultural victory.

The following table is a list of the various ethnicites sited among theGullah.

Ga - an ethnic group living primarily in Ghana	Yoruba -an ethnic group living primarily in Southwestern Nigeria
Fon -an ethnic group found primarily in Benin, Togo, and Nigeria	Mandinka -mainly found in Gambia but also in Senegal
Ewe -mainly residing in Benin, Togo, and Ghana	Ibo - mainly reside in Southeast Nigeria
Wolof -mostly residing in Senegal, but also spread across Gambia, and Mauritania	Malinke - reside mainly in Mali
Ibibio - reside in Southeast Nigeria and closely related to the Efik and Annang	Bambara - also referred to as Bamanankan residing in Mali
Fula -residence stretches from Mauritania in the North to Nigeria in the South. They make up 24% of Senegal's population.	Mende<- mainly found in Sierra Leone, but also spread out through Liberia and Guineab>
Vai	Efil
Akan - a Twi-speaking people residing in Ghana	Kongo - a people living in Soutwest Africa in the countries of Angola, Cabina, the Republic of Congo, and the Democratic Republic of Congo
Beni	Hausa mainly reside in what is now Niger and Northern Nigeria
Umbundu -residents of the Angola and surrounding areas	Fante- a Twi speaking people found mainly in Ghana and closely akin to the Akan
Kimbundu - a people residing in the Angola area

Resources

The African American Encyclopedia. Marshall Cavendish, 1993.

Encyclopedia of World Cultures: Volume I: North America. G. K. Hall & Co., 1991.

The History of Beaufort County, South Carolina: Volume 1, 1514-1861 by Lawrence S. Rowland, Alexander Moore and George C. Rogers, Jr. University of South Carolina Press, 1996.

"Vignettes of African-American History" [Paper given at the "Low country Traditions and Transitions Symposium at the University of South Carolina at Beaufort, October 4, 1997] by Hillary S. Barnwell, Beaufort County Public Library Beaufort Branch Manager. © 1997, Hillary S. Barnwell.).