Language Reclamation: Gullah Language and Creolization with African Roots
When I was a child, I used to love watching reruns of a show called Gullah Gullah Island. It was about a family who lived on an island off the coast of South Carolina with a giant yellow tadpole named Binyah Binyah Poliiwog. And though five-year-old me was probably most intrigued by the giant yellow tadpole, I also marveled at seeing people who were African American like me speak another language. Alongside presenting lessons on friendship like other children’s television shows, Gullah Gullah Island was also centered around teaching the Gullah language and demonstrating the intentional maintenance of African traditions on the island. One of my fondest childhood memories is dancing and singing along to “Funga alafia,” a welcome song with West African, and more specifically Yoruba, origins. (I could not find the Gullah Gullah Island clip of the song, but here’s another performance of it.) Yet, even at that young age, I could not help but wonder why the African American people on the show spoke Gullah and my family did not. As I got older, and Gullah Gullah Island eventually went off the air, the questions of Gullah’s place in African American culture still remained with me. I still think back to Gullah and consider how it relates to the distinct language identity that I desired and thought I lacked.
Gullah is a distinct regional creole language chiefly developed by descendants of slaves from Western and Central Africa along the coasts of Georgia and South Carolina and on the Sea Islands. Oftentimes, the application of creole as a linguistic qualification and the corresponding historical process of creolization are misunderstood. A creole is not a dialect, nor is it a “mix” of more than one language; rather, creoles, are linguistic constructions with independent grammar systems that are heavily influenced by other contextual languages. Gullah is considered the only primarily African language-based creole to have emerged from the United States. During the earliest days of the slave trade in the American South, West African slaves from diverse language backgrounds in the South Carolina and Georgia coastal regions started to create this creole as a means of communicating with each other and to preserve African practices in arts, crafts, and cuisine. [1] With time and the intentional passing down of the language to each generation, the creolization process ended and Gullah became a unique creole language.
After a long history of direct conflict and suppression of Gullah use, on October, 12, 2006, the regional homeland of the language was officially designated to be Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor. [2] For clarification, Gullah, as aforementioned, is the name of the language, and Geechee refers to the African Americans who speak the language, particularly those who live in the Georgia part of the corridor. Since its recent formation, the administrative body of the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor has championed the publication of books in Gullah, developed Gullah language curricula, and highlighted prominent members of society with Gullah Geechee heritage. For example, basketball all-star Michael Jordan and former first lady Michelle Obama both have Geechee roots. The Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor has also called for the further analysis of Gullah’s influences on American Southern dialects, music styles, and foodways.
The Gullah language and the surrounding Gullah Geechee culture are true embodiments of maintaining African roots on American soil. What would it mean for more African Americans to follow the Geechee’s lead and learn to speak Gullah? Learning Gullah and/or engaging in the creolization process with African-based languages can establish the foundations for language reclamation. The African language identity that was stripped from our ancestors can be explicitly reinserted and interwoven into our society in a way that still acknowledges our community’s American context. Of course, similar to African American Language in the language reappropriation model, Gullah and potential creoles like it may not receive needed broad institutional support in all contexts due to its overt distinction from English and all its resources. Yet, I believe that the reclamation of language identity is the ultimate incentive for consistent advocacy to make Gullah and creolization more central to African, American, and African American discourse. And in the era of digital TV, it's also nice to see the Gullah Gullah Island program again made available for viewing via Amazon Prime.
[1] “THE GULLAH GEECHEE.” Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, www.gullahgeecheecorridor.org/thegullahgeechee/.
[2] Ibid.
Blog Photo Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/45/Gullahlogo
