In the past, people have described the Gullah culture as quaint and the language as unintelligible. A closer look reveals a complex history and language with direct links to West Africa that survived slavery and thrived on the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia. The Gullah experience has many variables that make it unique to each family and community.
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Nakia Wigfall is a seventh generation Gullah basket maker from Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Wigfall travels to Sierra Leone with a mission to make sweetgrass baskets with the other local residents...
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In the city of Kabala, in Sierra Leone, residents speak their native tongue, as well as a Creole language called "Krio," which is similar in many ways to the Gullah language spoken by the Gullah...
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Freetown was founded by formerly enslaved people, many of them from South Carolina and Georgia. Their first attempt to establish an African colony in 1787 failed, but in 1792, more than a thousand...
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With the ending of the civil war in Sierra Leone, the next generation looks to the future with hopes of rebuilding their country, and getting educations. These inspiring young Sierra Leoneans are also...
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From 1617 to the abolishment of the English slave trade in 1807, Bunce Island was the last glimpse of home for tens of thousands of enslaved Africans. Today, only ruins remain, as a testament to the...
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Rice is a staple food of Sierra Leone. Rice is not only a favorite dish of Sierra Leoneans and the Gullah-Geechee, but it is also a part of their history. A dike system for cultivating rice worked...
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Henrietta Snype, from Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, is a world-renowned sweetgrass basket-weaver. Taught by both her mother and her grandmother, Snype has been creating sweetgrass basket art ever...
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A Cultural Hearth The success of Barbados, Carolina, America, the New World for that matter is coterminous with slavery. The labor, the technology, the ingenuity, and the culture that supported this...
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From Whence They Came Gullah is the blending of all the cultures that came together during that horrible time in human history called the Transatlantic Slave Trade. The connection between Barbados and...
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Anita Singleton-Prather grew up thinking she would study law and become a civil rights attorney. Instead she became a master storyteller, author and educator. Her work has influenced civil rights and...
