When slave traders stole Africans from the homes, they were “encouraged” to forget; not only did they not forget, they thrived and passed their traditions on to future generations through art, dance, and song.
Now the Gullah Geechee elders are working to preserve those songs that were passed down over the years.
St. Helena Island resident Minnie “Gracie” Gadson is among those who perform the passed down from her ancestors who worked the rice and cotton fields. The 78 year old Gadson and her fellow singers perform the songs in the Gullah Creole language. “I have a passion to sing these songs,” she says.
Director and actor Anita Singleton-Prather spoke on the project saying, “this Gullah Geechee thing is what connects us all across the African diaspora because Gullah Geechee is the blending of all of these cultures that came together during that terrible time in our history called the trans-Atlantic slave trade.”
Currently there are over 5,000 descendants of former enslaved people living on St. Helena Island where they respect the traditions and cultural roots.
Singleton-Prather noted, “a A lot of our songs were coded, and this language is a language of survival, a language of resilience, a language of tenacity, giving our children a legacy — not a legacy of shame and victimization, but a legacy of strength and resilience.”
Gullah culture goes far beyond the song Gadson, Singleton-Prather, and their fellow singers are working to preserve; it also includes art forms, language, and food and can be found on the south-eastern states of North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida.
Author Eric Crawford (“Gullah Spirituals: The Sound of Freedom and Protest in the South Carolina Sea Islands) noted, “it’s important to preserve the Gullah culture, mainly because it informs us all, African Americans, where they come from and that it’s still here.”
First hearing the term Gullah in 2007, Crawford said, “as I began to investigate it, I began to understand that ‘Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen,’ ‘Roll Jordan Roll,’ ‘Kumbaya!’ — all these iconic songs came from this area.”
Adding, “versions of these songs can be traced back to the 19th century when ‘Slave Songs of the United States’, the first book of African American spirituals was recorded on St. Helena Island.”
Sitting on the original wooden pews of Mary Jenkins Praise House, musicologist Eric Crawford reflected, “these song became pivotal. They were forced to go to their owners’ church and stay in the balcony. But then in the evening, typically on Sunday evenings, Tuesday and Thursday, they had this space by themselves, away from the watchful eye of the owners, and they could engage in their own songs,” where they connected with their ancestors.
Crawford noted, “these singers are as close as we would ever come to how the enslaved sang these songs. That authenticity — you just cannot duplicate that.”
With Crawford’s help the singers have been spreading the music far beyond St. Helena Island around the U.S. and even to Belize and Mexico.
Along with the 78 year old Gadson, the performers include 89-year-old Rosa Murray; 87-year-old Joe Murray; and their son, Charles “Jojo” Brown.
Seventy-one year old Brown, who is also known as “baby” said, “I’m gonna continue doing it until I can’t do it no more, and hope that younger people will come in, others younger than me, to keep it going.”
Agreeing, Mother Rosa adds that she will keep singing for the grandchildren saying, “I hope and pray one or two of them will fall in my footsteps. I’m leaving a legacy for them to do what I’m doing for the Lord.”
There is even a Gullah Heritage Trails Tour that takes visitors through the historic neighborhood. Emory Campbell noted, “we thought it was important for people to know that Gullah people live on this island. A leader of the Penn Center for years, the 82 year old Campbell helped to translate the New Testament of the Bible into the Gullah language.
Singer and actor Marlena Smalls noted, “if we don’t know who we are, we’re lost.”
She added, “I want to know who I am. And I want my children to know who they are and their children to know who they are. That’s why it’s important.” She played Bubba’s mother in the film “Forest Gump”. She refers to the Gullah singers as the “true keepers of the culture.”
Gullah Geechee Futures founder Tendaji Bailey has been bringing students from Morehouse College to see the old prayer houses and hear some of the old songs. Bailey notes, “they hear some of the prayers, some of the songs, and they always come out of that experience transformed. So, I know that there’s power in this place, still.”