Ring Shout
A ring shout is a religious ritual, used by African slaves, to declare a oneness to God, call out to the ancestors, and to speak to each other. It's a counterclockwise dance-like movement, call-and-response singing, and percussion consisting of hand claps, and a stick beating the rhythm on the ground or the floor.
The ring shout was often performed after the slave owner's Christian service. It is said that the Gullah/Geechee, of Georgia and South Carolina, ring shouters made a circle around the church building. Often times, the slaves went into the woods at night to perform shouts, for hours, until they were exhausted.
A ring shout is performed when a songster begins or sets a song starting off slow, then speeds up the tempo. The singers, or basers answers the songster in a call-and response. There is a stick-man, who sits next to the songster, will beat a simple rhythm with a wood stick, sometimes a broom, the basers will use hand clapping and foot patting to add rhythm.
The earliest known records of the ring shout are circa 1840. Today, the shouting that is done in some churches come from the ring shout.
Below you can watch the McIntosh County Shouters perform a traditional ring shout
A ring shout is a religious ritual, used by African slaves, to declare a oneness to God, call out to the ancestors, and to speak to each other. It's a counterclockwise dance-like movement, call-and-response singing, and percussion consisting of hand claps, and a stick beating the rhythm on the ground or the floor.
The ring shout was often performed after the slave owner's Christian service. It is said that the Gullah/Geechee, of Georgia and South Carolina, ring shouters made a circle around the church building. Often times, the slaves went into the woods at night to perform shouts, for hours, until they were exhausted.
A ring shout is performed when a songster begins or sets a song starting off slow, then speeds up the tempo. The singers, or basers answers the songster in a call-and response. There is a stick-man, who sits next to the songster, will beat a simple rhythm with a wood stick, sometimes a broom, the basers will use hand clapping and foot patting to add rhythm.
The earliest known records of the ring shout are circa 1840. Today, the shouting that is done in some churches come from the ring shout.
Below you can watch the McIntosh County Shouters perform a traditional ring shout
Whoa I lalalalaluv THIS heah! I don't knoh if Ebenezer AME still do this but as a child they didum by marchin round the inside of da church. It would lead them into the spirit sometimes church never got started, the preacher never got to preaching lolol! However as a youth I just remember seeing mi grams mach round swaying side to side soooooo proud and full...whatever them ol spirits was saying to she made ee heart full of joy! Loving this piece love all things song and dance
ReplyDeleteI ABSOLUTELY LOVE MY GEECHEE ROOTS....I LOVE BEING GEECHEE
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