result in the extinction of the culture, its language, and customs.
F ollow the eastern coast of the United States to the South, where the water washes around the crags of the sea islands from Jacksonville, North Carolina to Jacksonville, Florida, and you will find the group of black Americans who are more directly connected to Mother Africa than perhaps any in the nation who descended from chattel slavery. They are the Gullah/Geechee people, whose ancestors were brought in chains to work the swampy and fetid rice, Sea Island cotton, and indigo plantations of the southeastern coastal region.
In addition to enduring the inhumanness of slavery, they also had to combat diseases like malaria and yellow fever, which were rampant in the rice fields they were forced to tend. Many of the enslaved Africans born on Africa’s Rice Coast, which stretches primarily from what is now Senegal to Sierra Leone and Liberia on the continent’s west coast, were immune to these illnesses. However, the white plantation owners were not, and they fled their profitable plantation lands, choosing instead to live on the mainland. The result was that many sea-island plantations were self-contained communities where the African people were autonomous, even as their knowledge was exploited to bring forth many of the cash crops and to build the buildings within the area.
On these plantations, with minimal interaction with their European masters, these enslaved Africans strengthened themselves and their African-combined African traditions. They mixed the ways of various ethic groups from their homelands and created a uniquely pan–African American culture with its own language, Gullah/ Geechee, which is a type of Creole that is somewhat similar to the patois spoken in Jamaica, Barbados, Suriname, and Sierra Leone.
Due to a lack of true knowledge of these communities, for many years “Gullah” or “Geechee” were terms used separately by outsiders to describe what they considered to be different groups living in the region. However, Gullah/Geechees came together on July 2, 2000 to stand for their human right to self-determination, and began a movement of reconnection and recognition as one unique minority group. The Gullah/ Geechee still practice African traditions for major life events, such as weddings, funerals, and births. They continue to make clay pots and sewn baskets in the African traditions, and their diet is still heavily based on rice and the seafood harvested from local waters. Purely African musical instruments, like the shegureh and various skin drums are still in use. Many celebrations are held throughout the year in the Gullah/ Geechee Nation to celebrate their culture.
For more information on the Gullah/Geechee, visit www.officialgullahgeechee.info .
“My fader gone to unknown land.
O de Lord he plant his garden deh.
He raise de fruit for you to eat.
He dat eat shall neber die.”
— From the oldest published version of the Gullah/Geechee spiritual, Michael Row Your Boat Ashore, 1867
Did You Know? The popular children’s stories about Brer Rabbit are actually African folktales retold among the Gullah/Geechee people?
Executive Office Catfish Curry
Washington, DC
SERVES 4
Heart &Soul
Food historian Adrian Miller believes Caribbean influence on American cuisine is often overlooked. In Martha Washington’s Rules for Cookery, one finds a fish curry recipe that is attributed to Elizabeth Monroe, the wife of President James Monroe, that most likely came to the colonies by way of the West Indies. Today, curry mixes unique to Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados, and other islands comprise the base spice for many staple dishes. Mr. Miller learned the following updated recipe that celebrates the marriage of ingredients from the West Indies and the American South from a chef who created the dish to complement a presentation. “He pepped it up with ginger, garlic, bell peppers, carrots and celery, some heat (piquin
F ollow the eastern coast of the United States to the South, where the water washes around the crags of the sea islands from Jacksonville, North Carolina to Jacksonville, Florida, and you will find the group of black Americans who are more directly connected to Mother Africa than perhaps any in the nation who descended from chattel slavery. They are the Gullah/Geechee people, whose ancestors were brought in chains to work the swampy and fetid rice, Sea Island cotton, and indigo plantations of the southeastern coastal region.
In addition to enduring the inhumanness of slavery, they also had to combat diseases like malaria and yellow fever, which were rampant in the rice fields they were forced to tend. Many of the enslaved Africans born on Africa’s Rice Coast, which stretches primarily from what is now Senegal to Sierra Leone and Liberia on the continent’s west coast, were immune to these illnesses. However, the white plantation owners were not, and they fled their profitable plantation lands, choosing instead to live on the mainland. The result was that many sea-island plantations were self-contained communities where the African people were autonomous, even as their knowledge was exploited to bring forth many of the cash crops and to build the buildings within the area.
On these plantations, with minimal interaction with their European masters, these enslaved Africans strengthened themselves and their African-combined African traditions. They mixed the ways of various ethic groups from their homelands and created a uniquely pan–African American culture with its own language, Gullah/ Geechee, which is a type of Creole that is somewhat similar to the patois spoken in Jamaica, Barbados, Suriname, and Sierra Leone.
Due to a lack of true knowledge of these communities, for many years “Gullah” or “Geechee” were terms used separately by outsiders to describe what they considered to be different groups living in the region. However, Gullah/Geechees came together on July 2, 2000 to stand for their human right to self-determination, and began a movement of reconnection and recognition as one unique minority group. The Gullah/ Geechee still practice African traditions for major life events, such as weddings, funerals, and births. They continue to make clay pots and sewn baskets in the African traditions, and their diet is still heavily based on rice and the seafood harvested from local waters. Purely African musical instruments, like the shegureh and various skin drums are still in use. Many celebrations are held throughout the year in the Gullah/ Geechee Nation to celebrate their culture.
For more information on the Gullah/Geechee, visit www.officialgullahgeechee.info .
“My fader gone to unknown land.
O de Lord he plant his garden deh.
He raise de fruit for you to eat.
He dat eat shall neber die.”
— From the oldest published version of the Gullah/Geechee spiritual, Michael Row Your Boat Ashore, 1867
Did You Know? The popular children’s stories about Brer Rabbit are actually African folktales retold among the Gullah/Geechee people?
Executive Office Catfish Curry
Washington, DC
SERVES 4
Heart &Soul
Food historian Adrian Miller believes Caribbean influence on American cuisine is often overlooked. In Martha Washington’s Rules for Cookery, one finds a fish curry recipe that is attributed to Elizabeth Monroe, the wife of President James Monroe, that most likely came to the colonies by way of the West Indies. Today, curry mixes unique to Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados, and other islands comprise the base spice for many staple dishes. Mr. Miller learned the following updated recipe that celebrates the marriage of ingredients from the West Indies and the American South from a chef who created the dish to complement a presentation. “He pepped it up with ginger, garlic, bell peppers, carrots and celery, some heat (piquin
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