The Gullah Culture

The Gullah are African Americans who live
in the Low Country region of South Carolina
and Georgia, which includes both the coastal
plain and the Sea Islands. Historically, the
Gullah region once extended north to the
Cape Fear area on the coast of North
Carolina and south to the vicinity of
Jacksonville on the coast of Florida; but
today the Gullah area is confined to the
South Carolina and Georgia Low Country.
The Gullah people are also called Geechee,
after the Ogeechee River near Savannah,
Georgia. The term Geechee is most com-
monly used in Charleston, South Carolina.

The Gullah are known for preserving more
of their African linguistic and cultural heritage than any other African American community in the United States. They speak an English-based creole language containing many African loanwords and significant influences from African languages in grammar and sentence structure. The Gullah language is related to Jamaican Creole, Bahamian Dialect, and the Krio language of Sierra Leone in West Africa. Gullah storytelling, foodways, music, folk beliefs, crafts, farming and fishing traditions, etc. all exhibit strong influences from West and Central African cultures.