A Taste of
GULLAH PHOTO PROVIDED BY DISCOVER SOUTH CAROLINA
BY ALLYSON JONES
Several of the South’s signature dishes have flavorful roots steeped in the distinctive West African Gullah culture of the South Carolina and Georgia coast. From shrimp (or fish) and grits and okra stew or gumbo served over rice to boiled peanuts (a.k.a.”goober peas”) and deviled crab, Lowcountry cuisine is an edible legacy currently being celebrated and carried on by Gullah chefs through cookbooks, catered events and food festivals. To understand the culinary contributions of Gullah culture, it is important to look at the past. According to Sciway.net, “Rice production in South Carolina 42
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increased dramatically after 1705. In the late Colonial period, rice profitability also increased. West Africa resembles South Carolina in both climate and landscape, and rice had long been cultivated there.” Many enslaved West Africans were brought to South Carolina plantations specifically for their knowledge of rice cultivation. The labor-intensive farming required transforming swampland into rice plantations with sweetgrass baskets – now South Carolina’s State Handicraft – originally used as fanners to winnow rice and to collect vegetables from the fields. “The Gullah Geechee people are descendants of Africans who were enslaved on the rice, indigo and Sea Island cotton plantations of the lower Atlantic coast,” notes the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission on their website. “Many came from the rice-growing region of West Africa. The nature of their enslavement on isolated island and coastal plantations created a unique culture with deep African retentions that are clearly visible in the Gullah Geechee people’s distinctive arts, crafts, foodways, music, and language,”