Video by a participant in the world record-setting largest ring shout on July 23.
WASHINGTON—Moving to pulsing African-inspired song and hand claps, The Geechee Gullah Ring Shouters, the Santa Barbara Ring Shout project and attendees of the All Things Gullah Family Day at the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum set a world record for the largest ring shout on Saturday, July 23.
“I’ll fly away, hallelujah, by and by, I’ll fly away” sang the Gullah Geechee Ring Shouters, as they moved in a circle to the rhythm of the drums being played, arms extended, gracefully flapping like birds.
Representatives of the Guinness Book of World Record were present to witness the event, as roughly 390 participants walked in a circle as the Shouters chanted songs in a tradition brought to America by enslaved Africans. Scholar and linguist Lorenzo Dow Turner learned the custom was derived from a spiritual practice in Africa of dancing around a sacred object.
The largest ring shout was the culminating event in a day full of activities in celebration of the Gullah Geechee culture of the Sea Islands of Georgia, the coasts of South Carolina and northern Florida. Gullah Geechee people incorporate and maintain language, foods, and customs from their original African ancestors brought to the United States as slaves.
“ We are the only culture in America that has its birth out of slavery,” said Griffin Lotson, director of the Geechee Gullah Ring Shouters. “By doing this [the largest ring shout] the record will be broken in future.” Their performances help to keep the Gullah Geechee culture alive, according to Lotson.
The celebration marked closing of the exhibit: “Word, Shout, Song: Lorenzo Dow Turner Connecting Communities Through Language.” It was so popular it was extended repeatedly after its original closing date in March. It will travel around the country. According to the Smithsonian, “ Weh you duh gwoin” is Gullah for “where are you going? Weh the exhibit duh gwoin is not yet announced.
The Lorenzo Dow Turner collection in the Anacostia community Museum, documents the research and travels of Dr. Turner in his 20th century study of the Gullah Geechee people. Turner successfully connected the Gullah language, once thought to broken English, with multiple languages of West Africa and Brazil.
In his study of the language, artistic expressions, foods and fishing practices of the Gullah people, Turner learned that they retained some of “their Africanisms” even through slavery, renaming animals, plants and cooked foods with words similar to those used in their ancestral languages. According to the Smithsonian blog, “The words for okra, in Gullah “gambo” and “kingombo” in Kimbundu, a language spoken in Angola, later became gumbo in English. The Gullah word “tabi,” meaning the cement made from oyster shells (later tabby in English) resembled the word, “tabax,” or stone wall, in the sub-Saharan Wolof language.
The afternoon festivities honored the Gullah Geechee heritage through Gullah Folktale story telling workshops, outdoor arts and crafts activities where children made Gimp Key Chains and decorated mojo dolls, Gullah Dress-up and the Art of Adornment Workshop where participants dressed in elaborate African clothing, or simpler Gullah dress. Participants dressed in Gullah clothing were photographed with branches of cotton, seeming to recreate a moment from the past.
“ Young people don’t know enough about our past. They don’t know how much people struggled, suffered, bled and died for us to have freedom and equality. If they knew, they would appreciate it more,” said Bonita White, director of EEO Compliance for the Department of Health and Human Services, who attended the Art of Adornment workshop.
Although there are now festivities to celebrate Gullah culture, for a long time in Georgia and South Carolina, it was looked down upon to be Geechee or Gullah. Geechee people were thought to be uneducated and to speak with broken English, said Lotson.
“ To identify oneself as Gullah or Geechee meant that you were destined to not amount to much in life. But I’m glad that the notion has changed,” said Ron Daise, a member of the national Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission in a biography on GullahGullah.com, in which he shares his experience growing up in St. Helena Island, South Carolina.
In accepting and celebrating his cultural heritage, Daise was able to share Gullah song, stories and speech on “Gullah Gullah Island” the award winning Nick Jr. TV show in which he starred with his wife Natalie in 1996.
“Dr. Turner helped inform African Americans about their heritage, identity and culture and dispel racist stereotypes about them in the greater society,” said Camille Giraud Akeju, director of the Anacostia Community museum in a press release.
