18 Facts About Gullah

Gullah are an African American ethnic group who predominantly live in the Lowcountry region of the U S states of Georgia, Florida, South Carolina, and North Carolina, within the coastal plain and the Sea Islands.

Gullah is a term that was originally used to designate the creole dialect of English spoken by Gullah and Geechee people.

Sometimes referred to as "Sea Island Creole" by linguists and scholars, the Gullah language is sometimes considered as being similar to Bahamian Creole, Barbadian Creole, Guyanese Creole, Belizean Creole, Jamaican Patois and the Sierra Leone Krio language of West Africa.

Origin of the word "Gullah" can be traced to the KiKongo language, spoken around the Congo River's mouth to which the “Gullah” dialects spoken by black Americans today come from.

Still another possible linguistic source for "Gullah" are the Dyula ethnic group of West Africa, from whom the American Gullah might be partially descended.

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Gullah people have several West African words in their language that survived despite hundreds of years of slavery when African Americans were forced to speak English.

Gullah people have been able to preserve much of their African cultural heritage because of climate, geography, cultural pride, and patterns of importation of enslaved Africans.

Hair, Gullah culture developed as a creole culture in the colonies and United States from the peoples of many different African cultures who came together there.

Over time, the Gullah people developed a creole culture in which elements of African languages, cultures, and community life were preserved to a high degree.

Many Gullah served with distinction in the Union Army's First South Carolina Volunteers.

Since the late 20th century, the Gullah people—led by Penn Center and other determined community groups—have been fighting to keep control of their traditional lands.

Gullah have struggled to preserve their traditional culture in the face of much more contact with modern culture and media.

Gullah have preserved many of their west African food ways growing and eating crops such as Sea island red peas, Carolina Gold rice, Sea Island Benne, Sea island Okra, sorghum, and watermelon all of which were brought with them from West Africa.

The Gullah have become a symbol of cultural pride for blacks throughout the United States and a subject of general interest in the media.

In 1991 Julie Dash wrote and directed Daughters of the Dust, the first feature film about the Gullah, set at the turn of the 20th century on St Helena Island.

Gullah culture is being celebrated elsewhere in the United States.

Gullah traditions are strong in the rural areas of the Lowcountry mainland and on the Sea Islands, and among their people in urban areas such as Charleston and Savannah.

Gullah people living in New York frequently return to the Lowcountry to retire.