Oh My Lord! Lord! Lord! Tenk GAWD fa de Souljahs! March on Drumming Mingo!

Gullah/Geechee Nation ♦ October 21, 2026 ♦ Leave a comment

by Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation (www.QueenQuet.com)

In 1989, I walked into a movie theater to support yet another Black film. I am not for war films and conflicts but I knew that this was going to be a film about a freedom fight. So, I proceeded in with friends and took my seat prepared to be engaged. As the scenery showed, I was taken from this big city movie theater back to the Sea Islands. I sat back (They didn’t have the recliners in theaters back then.) and tuned my soul into the scenes.

When I heard “Oh my Lord! Lord! Lord! Lord!,” I had to refrain from loudly starting a polyrhythmic clap in the place. I smiled and sang along. I was back home in that moment beneath the oak trees with the elders and with these soldiers. I listened intensely to every story and appreciated each man for what he was willing to sacrifice and for the bravery.

At the end of the film, I sat and watched the credits as I dried the tears from my eyes. Those tears were a libation ceremony honoring each of those souls. In that moment, I never thought I would ever stand on Morris Island where those soldiers fought and many died. Yet, in the early 2000s, I and several reenactors and South Carolina leaders took a pontoon to that island and stood together on behalf of our ancestors that fought on both the Union and the Confederate side during the US Civil War. We went to take a stand to protect this sacred burial site and historic battlefield from destructionment. The image of me pouring the libation as one soldier from each side flanked me showed up in The State newspaper and I simply sat holding a copy and wondered how the ancestors were seeing that moment of unity.

I had that same feeling of unity on Saturday, October 17, 2026 as I stood at Camp Saxton in Port Royal, SC and was embraced by the Mayor and Port Royal Town Council members. The sincerity in their embrace felt like being connected to a powerful circuit. The energy radiated through me.

The power of standing there on that ground truly put warmth into my body and soul because everything had aligned for me to honor one of my ancestors that was a part of the United States Colored Infantry, Mingo Goodwine mustered into service at 14 years old. He played a crucial role during the war as the drummer that provided signals during the war. Yet, no one had drummed up his story nor passed it down through our family. When I located it, I knew his story needed to come back to live and march on for the decades to come.

As I researched the approximately 3200 people who are buried on St. Helena, Warsaw and Dataw Islands who have headstones or vaults on which their names are still legible, Mingo’s story emerged. The more I learned about him, the more he seemed to speak to me so that I could tell his story to the youths and pray that they would be inspired to know that if he could do what he did in the midst of enslavement and war, they can also work to be leaders. As I read, I knew I needed to write. So, write I did. I then could envisioned what he looked like and I knew that he needed to be more than simply a part of someone’s war story or just listed as a name on a regimental roll. Mingo wanted to make sure that his story lives on. So, I was proud to march across the grounds of the same land that he had marched across and to premiere his book and have people from throughout the region purchase copies to take his story home and to their communities.

Oh my Lawd! Lawd! Lawd! Lawd! I pray that the story of who I call “Drumming Mingo” always marches on! Tenk GAWD! Asé!

Support Queen Quet, Chieftess of the Gullah/Geechee Nation and her continued efforts to accurately present ourstory. Gwine ta www.QueenQuet.com and www.GullahGeechee.biz.