Congratulations Candice

We, here at More than a Geechee, would like to congratulate Candice Glover, the 2013 American Idol. 

Growing up Gullah

I miss my home its in my heart. I came across this video the other day and wanted to give my own version of how I grew up. Let's start with the cooking

We cook differently than other people. I remember the first time my mother cooked potato salad for people here in GA they kept asking how did you cook this. My mom (may she RIP) never gave me her recipe but I know she used many different flavors including 2 kinds of milk and 2 kinds of eggs. We ate sardines.....let that marinate for a second. I am talking about the ones in the can where you peel the top back. The staple for breakfast in our house was grits and sardine for breakfast. Y'all remember the bones in them I hated that part but omg the sardines and grits yes. We are known for shrimp and grits but so many people have taken that and ran with it so I am not going to touch it. Something else we eat with our grits is liver. It gotta be calf liver though not that tough beef liver my mom did tell me that. What foods did you have that were staples in your gullah home?

We help each other.  Where I am from if we like you we help you if we don't well you will know. Everything I have is from my people geechee people. I seem to can only connect to them for some reason. I guess growing up I know my people so we have a lot in common. I can relate to what we saying, I can relate to what we eating, I can relate to our heritage. Where I am from it's not what you know its who you know. I can go down to Charleston right now and get a job within a week whereas here in GA I have been looking for a job for 3 years and have found none yet. If you have met a geechee person that has not helped you that means they don't like you.

Tough Parenting.  Our parents are tough. My hubs always say I don't mess with y'all geechee parents you all don't play. I admit my mom didn't I am not as strict as she was on me but I am strict. She was a tough cookie I remember having to go get switches off the tree, that leather brown belt....was readily available for me. My mom was tough but it taught me lessons that life is tougher than she will ever be. She prepared me for life I think that's one of the reasons life doesn't get to me as much.

What do you remember about growing up Gullah? If you didn't grow up Gullah tell us how you grew up in your neck of the woods?

By Kita

Give she a red wun

O'please Geechee family don't leave me hanging on disya wun!   Who remember chilly bears?  Bae bae lookya I bun the chilly bear queen of 'merica street heah!  I loved the red (cherry) wun and the yella (lemonade) wun.  My chilly bear lady stayed in Reed st housing (I may not have the name exactly right), God bless ee heart I can't call her name and I'm shame because many a day she put her futs under our dinner table and broke bread with us.   Anyhow, she would bring a whole carton of 'em soon as she knew I bun home. That bun the best treat ever!  I stayed in the freeza.  Who knew little Dixie cups filled with kool aid would bring a child so much joy.  My cousins and I would destroy a carton full in a day or two.  I'm sure other places in the sowt have something similar but just call them by a different name, but if ya Geechee and from chasstun then you ONLY knoh 'em by chilly bears.  What I would give now to hear Miss Ma'am yell shru mi screen door "chillee beah" and we come a flyin down the stairs.  Then when I/we got old enough we would walk our lil  boonkys right on up the street and get our chillee beahs ourselves. Just another fond memory growing up geechee.

Story by Pentherapee

Ring Shout

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

Njoy sum Geechee Black Histree Munt you tubes

http://youtu.be/JNgyGHjgbfk

http://youtu.be/dWpHNWLeKP4

http://youtu.be/No5HrBHkfzs

http://youtu.be/zg_UevpsyQA

http://youtu.be/r3gr1ghQExs

http://youtu.be/VxIJ4Jn3QFE

http://youtu.be/JNgyGHjgbfk

http://youtu.be/z3e5G3T6lWI

http://youtu.be/abgc1Y94iq8

http://youtu.be/D4Wl1KvBH7s

http://youtu.be/a5N7cbK85bY

QUEEN QUET/GULLAH NAYSHUN is such a great solid resource for geechee culture old and new! There's is so much of mi own culture and histree I still don't know (sighs) but I gwan ta lurn.  Hunna gwan knoh the ins & outs of mi culture wun dey.  Gud ting bun I'm intertwined simplee cus I bun born an dud alodda raysun, with boat sides of mi famalee bein frum chasstun...I literally have NO immediate famalee (like most charlestonians) from another part of da sowt so mi geechee ties, despite me living in Cali for years are strong up heah!  I'm so proud to be a geechee gal but I'm seeing dares alot I must lurn...I godda go deepa!!!

Happy Black Geechee Histree Munt!!!

PENTHERAPEE shufflin she futs ta da chasstun clap

If on twitter follow @moregeechee and @geechie101 (she tweets in authentic geechee language). Alot of fun!!

Every Geechee should be aware...

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/06/0607_wiregullah.html

Please read the above link.  It's a devastating truth.  How blessed we are that with the World Wide Web and other technology we have been able to keep our heritage/culture alive, but I feel like the Gullah nation is on life support.  Thank God for soldiers like Queen Quet and a few others that has put in their all to preserve our history.  Young Gullah Nation STAND UP!!!!!

Story posted by Pentherapee
Credit goes to National Geographic News

Help a Geechee Out

Hey Geechee Fam!

    A member of our Geechee Family is collecting hygiene products, healthy snacks, and puzzle books for Luvkits! The Luvkits will be handed out on Valentine's Day to Charleston, SC area hospitals, to bring a little comfort to those who are visiting love ones in the hospital.

Please send contributions to: Geechie Gurl Inc

                                             P.O. Box 71061

                                                   N. Chas, SC 29415

Please have contributions to the above address by February 7, 2013. If you aren't able to collect, and send items you can donate to service@geechiegurl.org.

Any help is greatly appreciated!