Tag Archives: Gullah Island

Everything You Wanted to Know About GULLAH GEECHEE PEOPLE and Were Too Embarrassed to Ask

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We celebrate BLACKNESS every day, but across the world, February is a constant reminder of how far we’ve come as a people; Look @ Us! Closing out Black History Month 2021 COVID-19 Edition is a historian caught in the “Twilight Zone.” Someone who can remember “Before Freedom!”


My mother was born and raised in a tiny little place in South Carolina, not even on the map, one of twelve siblings, yet I’ve never heard her refer to the term “Geechee Gullah, nor Gullah Geechee, but why? Learning of this cultural and wealthy legacy has changed my life, and I pray it changes yours as you travel through time with a tour guide who uses the term “After Freedom.”


Black History month may be coming to a close based on the world’s calendar, but Being black in America will always be a mixed-bag of emotionally charged questions from one generation to the next. However, today is the dawning of a new day where the truth shall make us free. Change has come. Let us not miss this moment.

Gullah

Gullah is a combination of Creolized language taking root through customs, traditions, and awful circumstances resulting from slavery in the US. This “Gullah” language was spoken by slaves settling in both South Carolina and Georgia. It’s not written language; It’s the passage and patios of the Lowcountry.


A good pot of GUMBO passed down over time might sum it up? African, English, and any adaptations, expressions, and words – Even foreign languages picked up, based on slave owner’s nationality.

The word “Gullah” might be a mixture of the African word Gora or Gola (names of tribes living in Sierra Leone). Some believe the Gala or Gallinas are the African connection for the Gullah people in the Sea Islands.

Three Books You Should Read:

  1. Enduring The Call; A 14 Day Journey, by Jocelyn Fagan ($14.00)
  2. The ZOLA Experience: A Journey of Recovery From Loss, by Katurah A Bryant, LMFT ($14.99)
  3. When The Heart Takes Flight, by Carla Yarbrough ($9.99)

Who’s In The HOT-Seat

Alphonso Brown, Author, Entrepreneur and Famous Historian of Gullah Geechee Culture in the HOR-Seat at Urban Academics Thursdays at 9:30 pm EST: https://bit.ly/UranAcademicsRoundtableSeat
Alphonso Brown, Author, Entrepreneur and Famous Historian of Gullah Geechee Culture in the HOR-Seat at Urban Academics Thursdays at 9:30 pm EST: https://bit.ly/UranAcademicsRoundtableSeat

Alphonso Brown was born and reared in Rantowles, SC, a rural area about 12 miles south of Charleston. He graduated from Baptist Hill High School. He received a BS Degree from S. C. State University in Music and a Masters’s from Southern Illinois University. Other Graduate studies in music include The University of SC, Charleston University, and The Citadel.

Notable Accomplishments

Author: A Gullah Guide To Charleston, by Alphonso Brown – BUY THE BOOK NOW

A Gullah Guide To Charleston, by Alphonso Brown ($5.01)

Professional Affiliations, and Memberships

  • Entrepreneur: Owner & Operator, Gullah Tours
  • Lecturer: The Gullah Language & Black History of Charleston
  • Licensed Tour Guide | City of Charleston, SC
  • National Educators Association
  • Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Inc.
  • SC Band Directors Association
  • SC Music Educators Association
  • The American Hymn Society

What’s More?

King Alonso is a member and the organist/choirmaster of Mt. Zion A.M.E. Church in Charleston. His concert choir participates in community events throughout the Southeast at colleges, churches, Fortune 500 conventions, and the Kellogg Foundation convention. And the annual Piccolo Spoleto Festival of Churches, where they do an all-Negro Spiritual Concert, looks forward. Also, every other year, the Choir performs the Dubois’ “Seven Last Words of Christ. During Christmas, they fulfill several selections from Handel’s Messiah.


Mr. Brown is a retired Band Director from The Charleston County School District, where he worked at Rivers High/Middle School for many years. He and his late wife, Laquines, are the proud parents of three sons: Howard, Terrence, and Joel, three daughters-in-law, and presently, eight grandchildren.

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Do You Have Questions?

Use the Comments Section Below to ask questions or get in touch with this HOT-Seat Chosen Visionary or the Urban Academics staff. Ask away, and she will get to your questions and quickly as possible.

The Ultimate Deal On GULLAH GEECHEE (Charleston, SC) HISTORY And Real-Time Wisdom

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If you were to google “Gullah” you would find terms like Gullah-Gullah Island, Gullah language, food/restaurants, etc. So where did the term Geechee Gullah, or Ghulla-Geechee come from? What’s the true history around this interestingly POWERFUL development of black folks, who I hear, landed in South Caroling as FREE Men; but later became slaves. Tonight; We’ll find out, you should grab a seat?

In this week’s HOT-Seat is a Chosen Visionary you cannot afford to miss. This is the closest you might ever get to a historian of this caliber, who has directly involved in the fight for Civil Rights his entire life. You can sit with him capturing nuggets of wisdom and learning truths you can’t get anywhere else. You can ask good questions getting age-old answers (from someone who was there).

You cannot buy a ticket to this table, but if you are reading this; you have a divine reservation with your name on it. CLICK HERE to RESERVE A SEAT.

Three Books You Should Read:

  1. Enduring The Call: A 14-Day Encounter, by Jocelyn Fagan ($14.00)
  2. The ZOLA Experience: A Journey of Recovery From Loss, by Katurah A Bryant, LMFT ($14.99)
  3. When The Heart Takes Flight, by Carla Yarbrough ($9.99)

Who’s In The HOT-Seat

Rev. Nelson B. Rivers, III

Pastor, Charity Missionary Baptist Church, North Charleston, SC, and Vice President, Religious Affairs and External Relations, National Action Network (NAN)

In July 2014, Rev. Rivers became Vice President of Religious Affairs and External Relations of the National Action Network (NAN) under the courageous leadership of the Rev. Al Sharpton. Rev. Rivers is honored to work with Rev. Sharpton in an organization known for taking action in todays’ civil rights battles.

In September 2008, Rev. Rivers became Pastor of Charity Missionary Baptist Church in the Liberty Hill community of North Charleston, SC. He is committed to preaching and teaching the “liberating good news”of Jesus Christ. 

For over 38 years Rev. Rivers worked at every level of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) including President, North Charleston, South Carolina Branch; Executive Director,South Carolina State Conference; Director, Southeast Region; Chief Operating Officer, twice as Chief of Field Operations, and Vice President of Stakeholder Relations from 2008 until May 2014.

His civil rights work led to the election of more than 300 new black elected officials in South Carolina between 1986 and 1994. He was a leading organizer of the largest civil rights demonstration in the history of South Carolina when over 50,000 marched in Columbia, SC, in January 2000 to demand the removal of the Confederate Battle Flag. Rev. Rivers was there when the flag was finally removed from the front of the capital in 2015.

Noteable Accomplishments

  • PASTOR, Charity Missionary Baptist Church (North Charleston, SC)
  • Appearances: Rev. Rivers has appeared on BET, NPR, CNN, MSNBC, Sky News, and 60 Minutes.
  • Appearances: Rev. Rivers has a speaking role in the movie Separate but Equal starring Sidney Poitier.
  • Appointments: to the Board of Directors of the Direct Action and Research Training Center, (DART); A national network of grassroots, nonprofit, congregation-based community organizations that brings people together
  • Membership: Founding Member of CAJM in 2011; CAJM is an inter-faith, inter-religious, inter-racial group of 30 congregations and organizations in the Charleston, SC area doing justice through congregational work.
  • Membership: immediate past co-president of the Charleston Area Justice Ministry (CAJM)
  • Service: Board of Trustees of Wilberforce University from 1994 until 2014 and is now Trustee Emeritus.
  • Speaker/Preacher: invited and spoke at the historic Dexter Avenue Baptist Church in Montgomery, Al where Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. pastored. 

Three Movies You Should Buy

  1. Gulla Gulla Island, Season 1 (3-Discs) by Nickelodeon ($14.99)
  2. Songs Uv Dee Gullah Pee’Puls, by Matrix Media Inc. ($42.82)
  3. Daughters of the Dust, by Kino International ($49.99)

What’s More?

Rev. Rivers’has received numerous awards for his civil rights and community work, include, but are not limited to:

  • Honorary Doctor of Humanities Degree, Wilberforce University
  • Induction in Wilberforce University Association Hall of Fame• Induction into the South Carolina Black Hall of Fame
  • Medgar Evers Award of Excellence in 2004 as the top NAACP staff professional
  • Honored with the month of October 2008 South Carolina African American Heritage Calendar
  • 2016 H. E. DeCosta Trailblazer Award by South Carolina African American Heritage Commission
  • 2018 Joseph P. Riley, Jr. Vision Award by the YWCA of Greater Charleston during their MLK Celebration
  • 2018 Grimke Award Recipient from The Sophia Institute

Rev. Rivers is guided by the words of Jesus the Christ found in the Gospel of Mark 10:43: “Yet it shall not be so among you, but whoever desires to become great among you shall be your servant.” He is honored to be a servant of the people of God!

He is married to the former Carolyn Smalls of Charleston and has five children and eight grandchildren. He received his bachelor’s degree from Wilberforce University in Ohio, which is the first private Black-owned and operated university in America. He is pursuing his Master of Divinity at Erskine Theological Seminary, Due West, SC. mHe is a lifelong servant in the fight for justice!

New To The Weekly Roundtable?

The Urban Academics Roundtable is your weekly dose of shareable content around Academics & Education. Each week, the goal is to educate, encourage, inform, inspire, lead, motivate, share, teach black, brown, and poor folks worldwide.

Who should attend? Administrators, Educators, Child Advocates, Entrepreneurs, Mental Health Professionals, Parents, Students, Upward Mobile Professionals, School Systems Interested in Change, Teachers, and any People Involved in Motivating Our Students Higher (P.I.M.O.S.H.) Affiliates.

Do You Have Questions?

Use the Comments Section Below to ask questions or to get in touch with this HOT-Seat Chosen Visionary, or with the Urban Academics staff. Ask away and she will get to your questions and quickly as possible.