♪ ♪ >> Hi, welcome to "Connections."

I'm P.A.

Bennett.

On this edition of Connections , we're headed to the Lowcountry.

When Africans were forcibly brought to this country, beginning in the 1600s, many came through ports located in places like Charleston or Savannah, Georgia.

Those that remained in the Lowcountry, for varied reasons, were able to retain some of what they brought with them... culture, traditions, even speech patterns.

Those semblances of Africa were mixed and mingled with this new life, and out of that, Gullah was born.

>> ♪ Somebody's callin' my name.

♪ ♪ I-I-I said, Hush.

♪ ♪ Yes, Lord.

♪ ♪ Hush.

♪ ♪ My Lord.

♪ ♪ Somebody's callin' my name.

♪♪ >> My name is Sharon Murray.

I am the person that presents "Exploring the Gullah Culture."

I introduce the language.

I introduce the music.

And most of all, we give background and history of why the West Africans came to the Lowcountry.

When these people were brought to the Lowcountry, though they were completely displaced, they were able to adapt to their new surroundings.

And if you look at some of the structures here, they made brick here at Boone Hall Plantation.

Many of the people that came to the Lowcountry for the rice culture were not only people that dealt with agriculture, but they also had a variety of different crafts, and those crafts were utilized on Lowcountry plantations.

When we talk about slavery in the early days, people were just brought to work.

But by the time the 1800s arrived, people that were skilled in various things-- like carpentry or blacksmith or weaving, spinning, or so forth-- those people were very highly valued and were very costly.

So those people were brought specifically for what they could do, as with field hands.

Since we're talking about the rice plantations, people weren't just arbitrarily brought.

They were brought for the skills that they had that could be used on the plantations of the Lowcountry.

So when they brought people from West Africa, they had been eating rice and growing rice for centuries.

We are talking about two different types of slave.

We are talking about the field hand that would do the agricultural work, but we're talking about skilled craftsmen.

They were the people that lived in these cabins here at Boone Hall.

They would have been the carpenter, the cooper, the blacksmith, the house servants, the weavers, spinners.

All of those skilled people lived in these cabins, and skilled brick masons made the cabins.

Field hands made up about 80% of the slave population on a plantation.

They probably would have lived in wooden structures, and there's none existent today.

As cabins were no longer used, they'd take the boards and help to repair other cabins or help to build new cabins, and over time they just disintegrated.

But they were wooden cabins and probably not nearly as elaborate as these.

The language, if we're talking about the language, it's what's called a creoled language, and the word creole means a mixture of a variety of things.

In the case of the language, it's believed it's mixed with 14 other languages, and they combined the bits and pieces from those languages and combined them with about 109 African dialects.

But because they came to the New World, which is English-based today, the majority of the words that you hear in Gullah are English words, but they are spoken on the rhythms of West African languages, and they also have the same grammatical structure.

That's why it's often very hard for us, accustomed to hearing English, to understand the rapid pace to the Gullah language.

I'll give you the beginning of a brief story.

[speaking rapidly in Gullah] So let me translate what I just said.

>> P.A.

: Please!

>> Murray: I said, "Ooh, look here.

He's in the yard all the time just mixing up and throwing up dirt and always causing some kind of confusion."

>> P.A.

: You can see Sharon at Boone Hall Plantation in Charleston, South Carolina.

The approach to the main house is one you will surely remember.

The centuries-old moss-draped oaks form a canopy overhead.

And to your left, brick cabins built by the skilled enslaved Africans who toiled on this plantation.

Appreciating Gullah means we appreciate their genius, their creativity, their strength.

>> ♪ And oh, my Lord, ♪ ♪ oh, my Lord, ♪ ♪ what shall I do?

♪♪ >> P.A.

: And we stay in the Lowcountry to learn even more about the Gullah culture with Mr. Ron Daise.

He is the vice president of creative education at Brookgreen Gardens in Murrells Inlet.

Thank you for being with us today.

I really appreciate your taking the time to come up and visit with us in ETV's studios.

I know that you work an awful lot.

You have been working with children's programming?

>> Daise: That's right.

>> P.A.

: Tell us a little about what you did with children's programming.

>> My wife and I were involved with Nick Jr. TV's "Gullah Gullah Island," a children's program series that had been in production from 1994 through 1999, and I believe it was shown in reruns for at least ten more years, but it's now off the air, and it was broadcast internationally.

>> P.A.

: A beautiful, beautiful show, and you have such a varied background in talking about the Gullah traditions.

You've written several books.

Tell us about the books.

>> Daise: Well, my first book, published by Sandlapper Publishing of Orangeburg, was titled "Reminiscences of Sea Island Heritage," published in 1986.

And that included oral histories as well as songs, historical photographs, and just giving information about the Gullah culture, specifically the community of St. Helena Island, which is my homeland.

>> P.A.

: When you say Gullah, how do you define Gullah?

>> Daise: Gullah is a culture, it's a group of people, and it's also a language of those persons who are descendants of West Africans who were brought to work on the rice plantations, indigo fields, cotton plantations of South Carolina and Georgia.

Gullah was not-- the term wasn't used very much as I was growing up.

It was used primarily by academicians and anthropologists, and no one wanted to be identified as a Gullah.

Geechee was a word that was heard as I was growing up, but no one wanted to be identified as that either.

If you were asked if you knew anyone who spoke Gullah, who was Gullah, the response would be, "Well, I know someone who speaks that Geechee who lives in some other community," because both of these were invectives, more or less, and no one wanted to be identified by either of those terms.

Geechee people primarily-- very close related to Gullah in culture and in language-- were primarily those who lived near the Ogeechee River plantations situated around parts of Georgia.

>> P.A.

: And I was going to ask you that, because you hear the two words usually together, Gullah/Geechee, but there is a distinction.

>> Daise: It's very faint, but there is a distinction.

In South Carolina, those West African descendants were generally called Gullahs, and in Georgia and in Florida, they have been called Geechees.

>> P.A.

: When most of us think of Gullah, we think of the way people think, of the way people speak.

>> Daise: Yeah, da way we talk.

>> P.A.

[laughing]: Yeah, exactly.

That's not the total of it.

>> Daise: Oh, no.

It's a culture of dietary practices, beliefs, superstitions... food ways, eating lots and lots of rice dishes.

And I traveled in 2004 and 2005 to two West African countries, and I saw firsthand these connections... the food ways, the language.

Krio that's spoken in Sierra Leone, K-R-I-O, sounds remarkably just like Gullah that's spoken in South Carolina and Georgia.

>> P.A.

: So could you understand?

>> Daise: I could understand all but a teeny bit w'en I bin dere.

And sometime dem S' L'onean people, dey say somet'ing 'cause dey t'ink dey de only one dat say dat, and I would answer them, and they would be surprised.

And I would say something or some of the other members in the "Priscilla's Homecoming" group that traveled to Sierra Leone would say something in Gullah, a Gullah phrase or a word, and the Sierra Leoneans would respond as well.

One of the celebrations during the weeklong events was a church engagement, and I read from the New Testament, a portion from the book of John.

It was the same passage that the Reverend Father-- it was a Catholic Church-- read during the service.

And as I read, there were shrieks of laughter and gasps throughout the room because they understood what I was saying.

>> P.A.

: Now, why is it that in the lower part of the country we were able to retain or to keep so much of that intact?

>> Daise: A large reason for that is because of the isolation of these coastal islands, and I backtrack to say that as I was growing up, the word Sea Islander was a word, an expression, that people took ownership of.

We were Sea Islanders.

We lived on the Sea Islands.

And these Sea Islands or coastal communities, where there were rice plantations for instance, were surrounded by waterways, and there were no bridges connecting these islands to the mainland until the early 1900s.

And because there were large populations of West Africans and their descendants, very few white people, that's why the culture, the language prevailed throughout centuries.

>> P.A.

: Now, we talk about speech.

We talk about food.

What are some of the unique traditions that we were able to hold onto if we were in the Sea Islands and we were the Gullah/Geechee people?

>> Daise: Well, one that I express in another book that I wrote, and the book is entitled "Little Muddy Waters: A Gullah Folktale," and it's about a hardheaded boy who has to learn about life from his Gullah grandma.

And Little Muddy Waters, who is dark-- he has a dark complexion, and that's why he's so named, Little Muddy Waters-- he has a space between his two front teeth, and in Gullah/Geechee communities, that space between one's two front teeth is called "the liar's gap."

It means that those individuals just tell lies frequently.

When I traveled to those two West African countries, I learned a different twist to that story.

If you travel to parts of Africa, particularly those two ones, or parts of the world where Africans were scattered throughout the African diaspora and you have a space between your two front teeth-- Brazil, Jamaica, or the West Indies-- people will be looking at you with excitement and saying, "Ah, did you see?

She got 'em!"

or "He got the gap!"

In those communities, those cultures, that space between the two front teeth is seen as a mark of beauty and sensuality... you're looking good.

>> P.A.

: And you know something?

And I'm from the Upstate.

I remember that a gap between your teeth, that was considered an attractive trait actually.

I remember that.

So somehow--I don't know how we got it in the Upcountry-- we got that from West Africa in some kind of way.

>> Daise: Respect for elders.

That's another thing.

As I was growing up, an older person could just turn around in the room and look at you, close one eye and start pointing a finger in your direction, and you knew to get right... straighten up and get right.

And in the West African countries where I traveled, respect for elders is just fundamental, even more so than I see even in Gullah communities today.

It reminded me of the past, as I was growing up.

>> P.A.

: Are we essentially losing many of those traditions, many of those mores?

Are they gone?

>> Daise: I won't say that they are gone, but we are losing them.

A large part of that is due to the media.

For instance, there's MTV.

There are the movies.

These are not kinds of technology in some of the villages that I traveled when I was in West Africa that the children have to be involved with.

So the wisdom imparted by their elders is sought after.

>> P.A.

: So you've written a new book that will be out very soon.

Tell us about that book and why you wrote it.

>> Daise: This book is entitled "Gullah Branches: West African Roots," and it really is a sequel to "Reminiscences of Sea Island Heritage" from 21 years ago.

It chronicles my experiences from my travels to Ghana and to Sierra Leone.

It gives historical documentation about Gullah history and heritage, as well as memoirs, things that I've learned about my culture since the publication of that first book.

When I traveled to both Ghana and Sierra Leone, interestingly enough, I would begin to hear the tunes of old spirituals, Gullah spirituals I grew up hearing, and I would chronicle my experiences by putting new lyrics to those spirituals.

"Reminiscences" is laid out, the pages of "Reminiscences," the photographs, the stories are laid out around the stanzas of a poem called "Forgotten Moments."

And in following the same style, all of the memoirs, the creative writing, the poetry, the songs from "Gullah Branches: West African Roots" are laid out among the stanzas of a song that I wrote to the tune of the spiritual "I Don't Mind," and that song is entitled "There Is a Connection."

Would you like to hear it?

>> P.A.

: Sure, love to!

>> Daise: Or at least the chorus.

>> P.A.

: Yeah.

>> Daise: ♪ Af-ri-caaa... ♪ ♪ West Af-ri-ca-aa... ♪ ♪ Af-ri-caaa... ♪ ♪ West Af-ri-ca-aa... ♪ ♪ There's a connection ♪ ♪ deep down in my spirit ♪ ♪ with Af-ri-ca, West Af-ri-caaa.

♪ ♪ I've been to Ghana ♪ ♪ and Sierra Leone.

♪ ♪ I walked down the streets ♪ ♪ and felt right at home.

♪ ♪ There's a connection ♪ ♪ deep down in my spirit ♪ ♪ with Af-ri-ca, West Af-ri-caaa.

♪♪ >> P.A.

: So you did feel it?

I mean, you really felt at home?

>> Daise: I really did.

>> P.A.

: You know, I was talking with a young lady on the segment just before.

She is the historical interpreter at Boone Hall Plantation.

I told her that when I came onto the grounds of Boone Hall, it was very sad.

I mean, there was a real, deep sadness seeing the slave cabins there, and that connectedness surprised me, it really did, because I never thought that I would feel that just by looking at some cabins.

But as soon as I saw those cabins, I felt a connection, so I can imagine the connection you must have felt being in Africa.

>> Daise: Traveling to Ghana, my first time on the African continent, I felt so very much at home.

I saw the faces on buses as we traveled.

I saw faces of people from St. Helena Island, relatives that I grew up with.

I could pick them out, and I could name them.

That's so-and-so, and that's so-and-so.

When I was in the airport, I turned my head once-- a gentleman sat down beside me, and I turned around, and he looked just like my uncle, my Uncle Joe who was my father's youngest, at that time, his youngest living brother.

And I had to tell him, "I know you are wondering why I'm staring at you, but you look like my uncle."

And when I traveled to the upper part of Ghana, I met a 14-year-old boy who looks so much like me, he could be my son or a younger brother.

His name is Carlos Muta, and since then, my family is helping to send him through school.

>> P.A.

: Wonderful, wonderful.

Would you suggest then, for most Africans in this country today, that they travel back to West Africa, Ghana, Sierra Leone?

>> Daise: Right.

On the West African coast, those countries of the grain coast or rice coast-- Senegal, Gambia, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Sierra Leone, and Liberia-- were the countries from which Africans were imported, because of their skills and their knowledge, to work on the rice plantations of South Carolina and Georgia.

So from the South Carolina and Georgia Lowcountry, for the most part, many of our ancestors came from those particular countries, other West African countries as well.

It's unknown where the word Gullah comes from.

It could have come from the West African country Angola... Gullah, "gola."

And in Sierra Leone, there are tribes known as the Golas.

Perhaps it came from one of those names.

In Sierra Leone, I also met someone.

It was the minister of tourism.

I walked off the plane for the "Priscilla's Homecoming."

He saw me afterwards and told me I looked like his people.

"You are Fula," he said, because he was Fula.

And throughout the week, he would say, "You are Fula.

I told you, you are Fula."

And the picture of us standing beside each other, we look very much alike.

I did DNA testing upon my return from Sierra Leone, however, and I found out that my paternal lineage is from the Ewe and Akan peoples of Ghana, and my maternal lineage is from the Temne people of Sierra Leone.

So as my daughter Sara told me, once we got this report, "Well, Daddy, you had a family reunion each time you went to Africa, and you didn't even know it."

>> P.A.

: Did you find out whether or not you were Fula?

>> Daise: I'm not Fula.

I'm Temne.

>> P.A.

: Okay, you're Temne.

Well, somebody probably married somebody-- >> Daise: But from Sierra Leone.

>> P.A.

: Okay, all right.

Now, you were talking about your travels.

Is this beneficial for you in your position as, what, director of-- >> Daise: I'm vice president for creative education at Brookgreen Gardens.

Yes, it has been very beneficial.

>> P.A.

: Tell us, first of all, where is Brookgreen Gardens?

>> Daise: Brookgreen Gardens is in Murrells Inlet in Georgetown County.

Traveling on 17 between Georgetown and Myrtle Beach, there's Murrells Inlet, and if you see sculpture-- it's an aluminum sculpture of two fighting stallions-- that's the entrance to Brookgreen Gardens.

Brookgreen Gardens was established in 1931 by the Huntingtons, Archer Huntington and Anna Hyatt Huntington.

Anna Hyatt Huntington was a sculptor, and it was established on four abandoned rice plantations.

It encompasses 9100 acres.

There are sculptural gardens.

It's the largest sculptural gardens in our country.

American figurative art.

There are several gardens.

There's the Lowcountry Center, and that's where I work.

My work involves me with school groups that come to Brookgreen Gardens for programs in art, history, or nature.

>> P.A.

: So you're interacting with young people... most days?

>> Daise: Most days, that's what my office is involved with.

And I have also begun a weekly program.

It's a Gullah/Geechee program series, and the current program that I do-- it's Wednesdays at 1 p.m. in the Wall Lowcountry Center-- is called Gullah/Geechee Rhythms.

And that particular program informs viewers just about ten cultural touchstones about what it means to be Gullah and Geechee.

The pictures that I use, the information that I give, as is recorded in "Gullah Branches: West African Roots," is around a re-lyricked-- I took the words of another spiritual-- a coded-message song that was used by Harriet Tubman, "Children, Go Where I Send Thee."

The song is called "Dat's Right, I Am a Gullah."

♪ Dat's right, I am a Gullah, ♪ ♪ a saltwater Geechee/Gullah.

♪ ♪ This is reason number one.

♪ ♪ I was born on an island, ♪ ♪ a Carolina/Georgia Sea Island, ♪ ♪ and my ancestors ♪ ♪ came from West Africa.

♪♪ And I go through reasons one through ten, but they all conclude, ♪ And my ancestors ♪ ♪ came from West Africa.

♪♪ >> P.A.

: So now, for school groups who would want to come down and be a part of your presentation, how would they do that?

>> Daise: They can do that online at www.brookgreen.org or they can call 843-235-6000 and get information about how to become registered for the programs.

All of our programs are standard-based programs, South Carolina state standards.

They are 50 minutes in length.

I do cultural presentations, and that Gullah/Geechee Rhythms would be one of the cultural presentations.

Brookgreen Gardens, since 2002, has been involved in a very important program for Georgetown County.

Third graders from Georgetown County and Horry County schools are bused into Brookgreen Gardens for a day of educational experiences about what it means to be Gullah and Geechee, all about the culture and the history.

>> P.A.

: We are about out of time, but I just want you, Mr. Daise, to tell us, as South Carolina culture generally, how important is the Gullah/Geechee influence?

>> Daise: It is very important.

The rice economy during the 1700s and 1800s was so successful because of the skills and the knowledge of the West Africans who were brought, who had knowledge about rice production and brought the rice economy to its heyday.

Many people for years-- even Gullah people, Geechee people-- thought our history began as slaves, but it did not.

It began in West Africa where we were free people and skillful and knowledgeable.

South Carolinians, people throughout the country, and people throughout the world need to be aware of that, and at Brookgreen Gardens, that's what we're trying to promote.

>> P.A.

: Well, Mr. Daise, you're doing a wonderful job of educating us, and we appreciate you being with us today.

>> Daise: Thank you.

>> P.A.

: And we love hearing from you.

Write or send an e-mail.

Our mailing address is... Well, that's our show.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Remember, stay connected.

I'm P.A.

Bennett, and I'll see you next time right here on Connections .

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪