African-American culture at crossroads





































By Matt Wells










BBC News, Gullah-Geechee Corridor




































































Its official name is the Gullah-Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, but
what it represents is a lifeline to America's oldest African way of
life.



Known as Gullah in the
Carolinas, and Geechee in Florida and Georgia, it's a multi-faceted
language that blends African tribal dialects with mainly pre-20th
Century English. It's also a coherent culture that melds African village
life with the very different surroundings of colonial America, and the
forced indignities of plantation slavery.




It has existed on America's south-east coast ever since the first slave ships began arriving.





Last year, Congress passed laws identifying the corridor, and
established a budget of $10m, for the nurturing and promotion of
Gullah-Geechee sites all along the coast. In recent weeks, a series of public meetings have been
held in the key states, to establish a commission which will oversee
the work. One of those who may well serve is Jamal Toure, a young
- but senior - member of the Gullah-Geechee Nation, based in the
historic port city of Savannah. He offered to spend the day with BBC News, to highlight
what the culture represents, and the extent to which it permeates
African-American life. "We are a land people, and also a water people," said
Jamal. "One of the things that weaves it all together and connects
people is the fact of the language." He also credits the internet for being a primary force
in bringing the disparate practitioners of the culture, who were
scattered across several states, together. Jamal wears several official Gullah hats, and also sees
his role as bringing America's African heritage fully alive through
story-telling and historical revisionism.







'Sickly slaves'








We began the day travelling with a touring choir from the South African
province of Kwazulu-Natal, to a beach near Savannah, known as Lazaretto
Creek. There, the young, track-suited members of the "Singing
For Joy" troop were told about the creek's blighted past, as a
so-called quarantine station for sickly slaves.





















Many died there from lack of medical care. The youngsters were visibly
moved by the vivid image of thousands of their continental ancestors
arriving on shore, to fuel the economy of the old South. There is no sign-post from the main road that would
encourage tourists to stop and remember. There is no monument to the
terrible waste of African life. After listening to a chorus of "Nkosi Sikelei' iAfrika"
as the waves lapped on the shore, we said goodbye to the choir, and
drove south, towards the town which has the heaviest concentration of
Gullah-Geechee speakers in the world. "It's about making sure that people realise that the
epicentre of Gullah-Geechee culture is right here," said Jamal, as we
arrived in the driveway of the Geechee Kunda cultural centre and
museum. Kunda is a tribal word for compound, but the centre
created by Jim and Pat Bacote in the town of Riceboro Georgia manages
to be a living museum, meeting place, artists' gallery, and an
excellent place to sample the rice and shrimp-based cuisine of the
Southern Low Country.





















"It's a close sense of family," said Jim, referring to the whole notion
of being Gullah. "It's a spiritual bond that draws you back. We know
that this is our holy land."




"This is where we feel protection, and hope," he added.












'Cultural plight'












The Gullah had to keep many of their African traditions alive in secret during the slave era.





Religious life is historically tied to the Christian Bible, but also
tribal mysticism. Jamal and Jim are both practising Muslims. Although much of Gullah vocabulary is English, the
heavy patois and varied accents, combined with extraordinary verbal
speed, make it impossible to follow for a non-speaker.


















































The culture will die if we don't do something right now




















Griffin Lotson, Gullah-Geechee politician

































"Nothing moves without the women," said Bethany Campbell, who was
preparing delicious mounds of food for any friend of Geechee Kunda who
might drop by. More than 30 people ended up eating there that
afternoon. "Because we are all multi-lingual we will go automatically
from speaking in our own dialect to whatever's necessary, to suit the
person we're conversing with." At the back of everybody's mind at the Geechee Kunda is
the sense of their culture standing at a crossroads. Many of the oldest
and best preserved sites are on the coastal islands, which have become
prized real-estate for big developers in recent years.




The temptation to sell, and head for a new more materialistic life way inland, has proven too strong for many.









One prominent Gullah-Geechee politician and rural advocate, Griffin Lotson, was among the visitors to drop by the Kunda.









"We're going to lose land," he said.









"The culture will die if we don't do something right now."









He stood for state-wide election last year, and helped bring the culture's plight to national prominence.









Although he did not win, this year he is vying to become the first Gullah-Geechee mayor of one of Georgia's largest cities.





Having done much of the groundwork for it over the last four years, he
is hoping that both Jim and Jamal will be chosen to serve on the new
corridor commission. "If we can get true people on that board, then we will
be in more control to tell our story - and not let somebody else do
it."



















Marking the 200th anniversary of Britain's abolition of the slave trade










Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/6532403.stm



Published: 2007/04/09 10:51:53 GMT



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