Gullah Geechee Spirituals and Shout Songs
Organizer: Aaron Carter-Ényì
In 1903, W.E.B. Du Bois wrote that the sea island peoples of Georgia and South Carolina are “touched and moulded less by the world about them” (251). Indeed, the Gullah-Geechee are exceptional because of their linguistic and musical retentions. Some scholars have argued that the Sea Islands of Georgia and South Carolina are the largest regional source of African American spirituals. Though originating in a remote, impoverished area, this heritage has had an enormous influence on American culture. From 1867–1940, scholars routinely visited Gullah Geechee islands to examine and record the strong West African retentions in this American folk music, producing five major studies with transcriptions including a major section of Slave Songs of the United States (Allen, Ware & McKim 1867), Saint Helena Island Spirituals (Ballanta-Taylor 1925), Thirty-Six South Carolina Spirituals (Carl Diton 1928), 104 Songs of the Carolina Low Country (Society for the Preservation of Stories and Songs Papers 1922-1931) and 344 Gullah Songs (John Bennett, 1907). Encompassing over 600 transcriptions of stories and songs, these collections reveal the melodic, rhythmic, and linguistic approaches enslaved Africans used as they forged what we now know as Gullah Geechee spirituals and shout songs. Despite the important contributions of the Gullah Geechee people to American and global musical practices, awareness of and engagement with these significant contributions remains limited.
This concert will demonstrate the rich culture of the region through performances of Gullah Geechee spirituals and shout songs by the Gullah Geechee Ring Shouters, the Voices of Gullah Singers, the McIntosh County Shouters, and the Morehouse College Glee Club.
