South Carolina: Gullah pride is woven into baskets
Jery Taylor perched on a chair, surrounded by an array of sweetgrass baskets.
She held a small bunch of long strands and pulled them with a spoon that had been twisted to form a big silver needle.
When asked how long it takes to make a typical basket, she glanced up briefly, her smooth skin eased into a grin.
"I don't know how long it takes," she said evenly. "You start and then you finish."
Enriched by the lilting speech, dirt roads and palmetto trees of St. Helena, S.C., Taylor represents a significant part of Sea Island Gullah culture. She learned the craft of sewing sweetgrass baskets from her grandmother 48 years ago. In keeping with Gullah tradition, she steadfastly preserves the practice.
Her baskets have been displayed at art fairs as well as the Smithsonian. Taylor traces her basket-making skills back 400 years to her ancestors in Sierra Leone.
The West African nation of Sierra Leone might not immediately spring to mind when exploring the small clusters of islands that hug South Carolina's coast, but that's where the area's distinctive culture springs from.
The famed shrimp and grits that claim the spotlight in Beaufort diners, the hand-tied fishnets that float along the shores of Hilton Head, the sweetgrass baskets that decorate markets and malls -- they all signal the vibrant history of Gullah culture.
Carrying an ancestry that stems from the enslaved West Africans who planted rice along South Carolina's Lowcountry, Gullah natives were able to preserve their culture because of Sea Islands' isolation.
Linguists have traced the lyrical Gullah dialect -- a combination of African and English words with a West African syntax -- directly back to Sierra Leone's Krio language. Sierra Leone natives and the rest of West Africa's "rice coast" (Senegal, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia and Guinea) were imported to South Carolina specifically for their rice-growing skills. They may have been forced to leave their homes, but they managed to maintain their language, cuisine, customs, beliefs and spirit.
Located just outside of Charleston's quaint cobblestone streets and over the Cooper River bridge, the town of Mt. Pleasant served up a fitting introduction to Gullah culture.
Along Highway 17, Gullah ladies sold intricate sweetgrass baskets at roadside stands. Ranging in price from $30 to $600, the baskets that were once used to winnow rice incorporate sweetgrass, bulrush and palmetto strands into myriad coiled designs.
Just off the highway, Gullah Cuisine restaurant laid out Gullah cuisine essentials.
It's said that true Gullahs eat rice at every meal, so Gullah Cuisine makes sure diners get a healthy selection. The menu lists red rice, a mixture of tomato sauce and pork; hopping John, a blend of field peas and rice; a melange of rice, vegetables, chicken, shrimp and sausage called Gullah rice, and then you have your plain old white rice.
Outdoor tables with embedded oyster buckets hinted at a seafood-lovers' paradise, and the charming eatery did not disappoint. Okra gumbo, shrimp and grits, fish head stew, fried oyster salad, fried flounder, catfish and crab dominated the menu along with collard greens, lima beans and macaroni and cheese.
Hovering over her customers like an indulgent mother, owner Charlotte Jenkins dished up a little Gullah history along with her food.
"When I first opened 11 years ago, there wasn't a lot of interest in Gullah culture. But over the last few years, there has been an awakening," Jenkins said. "I think it's a pretty neat culture because of the traditions from Africa brought here. They kept their own style of cooking and talking. You can lose all of that coming to a different continent, but they held on to it."
Jenkins grew up in the Sea Island hamlet of Awendaw.
She didn't realize the charm of her childhood until she'd lived in New York for 15 years. Jenkins returned to her roots so that her children could enjoy the same close-knit lifestyle. She and her sous-chef husband, Frank, opened Gullah Cuisine to spread the culture even more.
They draw the line at giving away cooking secrets, though. When asked exactly what comprised Gullah spices, she paused and smiled demurely. "Why, there's good stuff in there, history and things."
Outside the South Carolina or Georgia coast, many parents and children owe a budding awareness of Gullah culture to Ron Daise. He and his wife, Natalie, created and hosted the Nick Jr. children's TV show "Gullah Gullah Island" during the mid- to late-90s. Illustrating Gullah customs and speech with snappy songs and amusing folk tales, they unveiled the culture's living history to the rest of the country. As a singer, actor, writer and cultural consultant, Daise continues to spread the word about Gullah history.
Standing under oak trees dripping with Spanish moss, Daise plucked a piece of the plant. "Gullahs put Spanish moss in their shoe to bring down high blood pressure," he said. "The chemical makeup of the moss is similar to prescription blood pressure medicine. They would step on the moss in bare feet, breaking down the chemical properties so that it could get into their bloodstream."
The trees line the campus of the historic Penn Center, the first school opened for freed slaves in the South. Founded in 1862, Penn also was where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. came to strategize and meditate in the '60s and where Daise's parents and grandparents studied and became educators.
The school closed in 1948 and changed its focus to community service. The site now includes dorms, homes and a museum, whose small gift shop is full of plaques with Gullah sayings, handmade quilts and calendars made by prominent Gullah artist Jonathan Greene.
But the item with the most historical significance is the Gullah Bible. Called "De Nyew Testament," the bible was translated by the Sea Island Translation Team, of which Daise was a member.
"This is my family, my history, my culture," said Daise, as he waved at the 50 acres that encompasses the National Historic District of Penn. For Daise, whose mother, Kathleen, is the oldest living alumnus at 94, Penn represents a concrete connection to his Gullah past.
Noted for rolling golf courses and luxury resorts, Hilton Head Island claims a solid Gullah heritage. Until 40 years ago, Gullah families owned the entire patch of land.
This history isn't that visible anymore, but Emory Campbell intends for it to always be remembered. A native of Hilton Head and former director of Penn Center, Campbell leads Gullah Heritage Trail Tours several times a week.
"I think Gullah people decided that they needed to preserve the culture because it was disappearing," he said, referring to the resurging interest. Campbell leaned his 6-foot-4-inch frame over with serious thought. "I think it was a matter of preserving ourselves. People were pushing them away from that lifestyle and they began to push back."
Campbell's two-hour bus tour glided through the overlooked landmarks that commemorate Gullah history. He pointed out the five Gullah Baptist churches, the cemeteries on the waterfront so that souls could float back to Africa, and the one-room schoolhouse that was controlled by one teacher and "some switches."
He chuckled to himself as he illustrated the full circle that the culture has made. "People tried to change our lifestyle," he said, "now it's considered an asset to American culture."
Rosalind Cummings-Yeates is an Oak Park-based free-lance writer.