Staff reports | The director of a commission to preserve Gullah Geechee heritage says she is thankful (“t’engkful” in Gullah) for more than $1 million awarded over the last month to keep the culture alive in South Carolina, Georgia and Florida. Also inside: Parks and Rec re-accreditation; big MUSC anti-opioid grant; more.
IN THIS EDITION
FOCUS: Halsey Institute’s Southbound book wins national $25,000 award
BRACK: Drama on television is fine, but not by SCETV board
IN THE SPOTLIGHT: Titan Termite & Pest Control
GOOD NEWS: $1.2 million goes to Gullah Geechee preservation projects
FEEDBACK: Another Charleston first
MYSTERY PHOTO: Colorful building
S.C. ENCYCLOPEDIA: Blue granite
CALENDAR: Yikes! The Democrats are coming
By Asia Batey, special to Charleston Currents | Preserve the Gullah has been a three-year effort which all started when three North Charleston locals were introduced to the Sol Legare area, and with the help of their mentor, discovered the wealth of knowledge and history within this small, hidden community.
In 2015 in the midst of statewide flooding and the subsequent damage to the cookie-cutter subdivisions and businesses throughout Charleston, Willie Heyward, Asia Batey and Milton Tyus witnessed homes built many decades ago — by hand, mind you — barely chip a single bit.
Within the first week of moving to the area, they met families who still gardened and ate from the land. They were taught how to dig up dandelion root and learned of its health benefits, and they discovered that lemon and lavender are perfectly functioning natural mosquito repellents.
From the S.C. Encyclopedia | The term “Gullah,” or “Geechee,” describes a unique group of African Americans descended from enslaved Africans who settled in the Sea Islands and Lowcountry of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and North Carolina.
The term “Gullah,” or “Geechee,” describes a unique group of African Americans descended from enslaved Africans who settled in the Sea Islands and Lowcountry of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and North Carolina. Most of these slaves were brought to the area to cultivate rice since they hailed from the Rice Coast of West Africa, a region that stretches from modern Senegal to southern Liberia.
Calendar for the week of July 25+ — Folly Family Fun nights, Gullah storytelling, Godspell, Prayer rally, more.
S.C. Encyclopedia | Up until the Yamassee War of 1715, Indian languages were the most frequently spoken, but by 1730 the majority of people in South Carolina spoke African languages or an African-English creole language called Gullah or Geechee. At the beginning of the colonial era Africans numbered only a few hundred, but by 1775 their numbers had increased to 107,300. Europeans numbered only 71,300 by that date, and Indians had dwindled from 10,000 to 500.
By Embe Charpentier, special to Charleston Currents | Consider the last place among your travels that possessed a mythology all its own. Perhaps you heard a Caribbean fable after a Junkanoo parade, were regaled by an Appalachian storyteller or listened to a legend of Marie Laveau’s reign as voodoo queen of New Orleans. When you review the trip in your mind years later, the folklore lives on as intimately as the tastes, sights, and sounds of the region.
Charleston’s peculiar myths left me with an irresistible need to research. Where else do people so actively resist the incursion of the supernatural? Charlestonians paint a porch ceiling “haint blue.” Why?
We Can Do Better, South Carolina! (2019) by editor and publisher Andy Brack offers incisive commentaries on the American South, politics, the common good and interesting South Carolina leaders. Available exclusively for Kindle for $7.99. A paperback version will be ready soon. Learn more.
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