Monthly Archives: August, 2026
From Combahee to Angola: A Gullah/Geechee Journey in the Footsteps of a Souljah
We gathered. We protested. We poured libation. We demanded that the ancestors be properly acknowledged, studied with dignity and returned to the earth. We fought against allowing another building to erase them beneath concrete and steel.
As I stood beside the African mother, father and child represented there, I felt protected. I felt a throng of ancestors standing with me as I touched the baby’s hand.
Black Philanthropy and Sowing into Gullah/Geechee Land and Legacy
Here in the Gullah/Geechee Nation from Jacksonville, North Carolina to Jacksonville, Florida, our ancestors transformed the Sea Islands and coastal lands into places of cultural continuity, spiritual grounding, economic independence and self-sufficiency. After centuries of enslavement, they purchased land, built praise houses and schools, established farms and fisheries, and created family compounds in which Gullah/Geechee traditions could thrive.
Today, the same land that sustained our ancestors is under tremendous pressure from escalating taxes, heirs’ property disputes and partition sales, destructionment, climate change impacts, cultural exploitation and displacement. When Gullah/Geechee land is lost, we lose more than acreage. We lose access to sacred burial grounds, fishing and farming traditions, family compounds, community gathering spaces, native foodways, linguistic landscapes and the living environment in which our culture has endured. This is why Black Philanthropy Month must move us beyond celebration and into action.