Monthly Archives: October, 2016
A Gullah/Geechee Charge to Keep
“A charge to keep I have. A GOD to glorify!”
I have sung these words for the majority of my life, but I never realized how they would be spoken into existence. As I heard the words lined on St. Helena Island growing up and learned to respond along with the rest of the congregation, I never for once thought of the historical context of the entire ritual. Every praise house and church that I went to in the Gullah/Geechee Nation had this tradition, so I didn’t think it was unique. I found out as a traveled that it was not done in other places. I have come to see it slowly fading away.
Gullah/Geechee Seafood Festival & Famlee Day is a Celebration of Restoration and Recovery
The Gullah/Geechee Fishing Association, the St. Helena Community Market, All Mobile Productions™ (AMP™) and the Gullah/Geechee Sea Island Coalition invite you to a celebration to give thanks for the blessings GOD provided to St. Helena Island during and after the recent storms and over the many generations. Due to the damage to the Hunting Island State Park, the venue has been changed. The “Gullah/Geechee Seafood Festival and Famlee Day” will be held at the Dr. Martin Luther King Park on historic St. Helena Island, SC on Saturday, October 22, 2016 from Noon to 6 pm. Disya event FREE and e gwine have music, cultural presentations, food and fun fa allawe!
GOD Be: Hurricane Matthew, De Spirit, and De Gullah/Geechee
I realized that you do not just want GOD to be with you because that is a given. You want GOD to be in you which is a choice! Tenk GAWD fa choosin life and light ya!
Win de Gullah/Geechee famlee bin jayn today fa shout and praise GAWD fa all wha wi bin tru, hunnuh coulda feel how GAWD bin dey tuh! Ebeebodee got a testimonee bout how GAWD bin bless up de Gullah/Geechee famlee pun de islandts een de sea. We also bin da pray for de famlee een oda res a place likka Haiti and NC.
Afta all a disya, I ain kno bout hunnuh, but mi sho kno mo bout who webe and mi hafa sey “Tenki Tenki GAWD fa anointin and bein fa we!” GAWD fa we mo din de world against we, but GAWD dun sho we da all we need is fa GOD BE!
Living Through Matthew in the #GullahGeechee Nation
As the coverage of #HurricaneMatthew continued and we prayed unceasingly for the islands of our kins people-Haiti, the Bahamas, and Cuba, we also prayed for all in this pathway of what was going to take every thing from the pages and the Powerpoint presentations of scientific reports and predictions about sea level rise and storm surge and place it on the center stage of real life after having rehearsed as theories. I wondered if the people that I worked with in so many meetings to discuss resilience and adaptation would now be paying attention to the cultural heritage aspects of all of this. I also wondered if equity entered their minds. SMH I continued praying while staying.
Support Queen Quet of @GullahGeechee Going to UN’s COP22
Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation (www.QueenQuet.com) tirelessly works to help keep the Gullah/Geechee culture alive and to protect the environment. Her native culture is inextricably tied to the land and the waterways of the Sea Islands and the Atlantic Ocean. Due to major climate change dynamics, there are numerous threats to the Gullah/Geechee Nation’s coast and thereby to the continuation of the cultural traditions of Gullah/Geechees. Please support her journey to the UN’s COP22.