22
www.charlestonbusiness.com
IAAM SPECIAL SECTION
June 19-July 2, 2023
Members of the Gullah/Geechee Nation stand in front of the Angel Tree on St. Johns Island, which is slated to become the focal point of a 44-acre park. (Photo/Provided)
OPENING EYES TO STATE’S AFRICAN ROOTS
Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor bolsters awareness of the community through tourism, advocacy By Molly Hulsey
W
gsa@scbiznews.com
est Africa may be 4,000 miles away from South Carolina, but in some Lowcountry communities, the continent is much closer to home. Gullah, also known as Geechee, people created the only African creole language unique
to the United States, according to the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission. Some speakers consider today’s Gullah language to be mutually intelligible to the lingua franca of Sierra Leone, one of the nations along Africa’s “Rice Coast,” where the ancestors of the Gullah people lived before they were enslaved to work on Sea Island rice plantations stretching from southern North Carolina to northern Florida. Beaufort’s Gullah communities were the first to gain freedom in the American South in 1861, and into the 20th century, residents were able to perpetuate their centuries-old traditions with little
outside influence, according to Visit Beaufort. Despite such isolation, the Gullah Geechee language, as well as the community’s vibrant arts, music and culinary heritage, has given birth to many iconic Lowcountry touchstones, from speech patterns to shrimp and grits. Today, coastal development and corresponding property prices have pushed many Gullah people out of of their centuries-old homelands, but efforts such as the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, a 12,000-square-mile National Heritage Area, have bolstered awareness of the community through tourism and advocacy. “We just go to old neighborhoods and tell the story about what took place in that area,” said Irwin Campbell of Gullah Heritage Trail Tours on Hilton Head Island. “Most of the neighborhoods have changed now, so I have to tell people ‘imagine what I’m talking about.’ That is so true in a lot of these See TOURISM IMPACT, Page 23