Gullah's Trabbels
Event Type
Presentation
Location
EHFA 137
Start Date
6-3-2020 9:00 AM
End Date
6-3-2020 10:30 AM
Description
According to Aisha Turman, Barnard Library Research Award Recipient 2015-2016: "Afrofuturism is a result of and a response to the Transatlantic Slave Trade with particular roots in Gullah Geechee culture." The Gullahs, descendants of enslaved Africans from the western and central regions of the continent, preserved elements of various languages, rituals, customs, and traditions that were lost to most of those who were enslaved in the Americas. Through the memory of DNA, the Gullahs sustained the tradition of initiation through the coming of age practice of "seekin' and strivin'". Through research, Kamara illustrates how this practice mirrors the Poro and Sande secret societies of Liberia and Sierra Leone. She shows the Gullah people as the cultural curators of tribal cultures through the interpretation of the ancient ethnoastronomy of the Dogon in Mali. The influences on the Gullah from this ethnoscience inform their interpretation of the cosmos and astronomical phenomena such as the blood moon and solar eclipses. Finally, the isolation of the Gullah people on the sea islands preserved and informed the purest version of these customs outside of continental Africa. Furthermore, Kamara asserts, the practice of ring shout and funerary rituals of shaking off spirits are the Gullah's response to continuing the mysticism of tribal cultural heritage.
Recommended Citation
Kamara, Khadija, "Gullah's Trabbels" (2020). International Gullah Geechee and African Diaspora Conference. 23.
https://digitalcommons.coastal.edu/iggad/2020/fullconference/23
Gullah's Trabbels
EHFA 137
According to Aisha Turman, Barnard Library Research Award Recipient 2015-2016: "Afrofuturism is a result of and a response to the Transatlantic Slave Trade with particular roots in Gullah Geechee culture." The Gullahs, descendants of enslaved Africans from the western and central regions of the continent, preserved elements of various languages, rituals, customs, and traditions that were lost to most of those who were enslaved in the Americas. Through the memory of DNA, the Gullahs sustained the tradition of initiation through the coming of age practice of "seekin' and strivin'". Through research, Kamara illustrates how this practice mirrors the Poro and Sande secret societies of Liberia and Sierra Leone. She shows the Gullah people as the cultural curators of tribal cultures through the interpretation of the ancient ethnoastronomy of the Dogon in Mali. The influences on the Gullah from this ethnoscience inform their interpretation of the cosmos and astronomical phenomena such as the blood moon and solar eclipses. Finally, the isolation of the Gullah people on the sea islands preserved and informed the purest version of these customs outside of continental Africa. Furthermore, Kamara asserts, the practice of ring shout and funerary rituals of shaking off spirits are the Gullah's response to continuing the mysticism of tribal cultural heritage.
Comments
Theme: Magic, Mysticism, Afrofuturism, and Ways of Knowing; Moderator: Shari Orisich, Coastal Carolina University