wikitongues:

No matter how many things you want to do, you can only do one thing at a time. -Gullah proverb

This week’s #WeeklyTongue is Gullah/Geechee, in light of US Independence day on the 4th. Gullah is also called “Sea Island Creole” by academics. It’s an English-based creole similar to Jamaican Patois, Trinidadian and other English-based Carribean Creoles. Gullah speakers are found on the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia. The Gullah are descendants of West African slaves. The Gullah and their language are referred to as Gullah in South Carolina whereas they’re called Geechee in Georgia. The Bible has been translated to Gullah too, yet they have little online presence. 

Check out this beautiful video of Caroline speaking Gullah and English from our channel. 

The Gullah are well known for their sweetgrass baskets and their storytelling. One of the stories explains why a cat doesn’t wash his face before breakfast and it goes something along the lines of this…

“Why Bro Cat na da wash e face of e eat e brekwas”

Bro rat fell into Bro Cat’s breakfast and Bro Cat wanted to eat him. Bro Rat saved himself by saying “Maan a nina way roun de edge ob de barrel fa lok ten an a skip an a faal een. Eef you hep me fa git outa ya, I let you eat me fa brekwas” = “Man, I was curious about what was inside the barrel and slipped and fell in. If you help me out, I’ll let you eat me”.

Once Bro Rat was out of the barrel, Bro Cat wanted to eat him but he said that Bro Cat would choke on his wet hairs, so he should sit in the sun to dry. In the mean time, Bro Cat should wash his face. While Bro Cat was washing his face, naturally Bro Rat ran away. This is why cat’s don’t wash their face before breakfast anymore. [Source: Gullah Culture in America]

The origin of the word Gullah is vague, but most historians agree that the Gullah language has African roots.

Here is an impressive collection of Gullah words. http://gullahtours.com/gullah/gullah-words
This page has extra links that are worth looking at too! http://studysc.org/elementary/gullah-culture

Let’s celebrate the beauty of Gullah for this week’s #WeeklyTongue!

sundancearchives:

In 1991 Julie Dash premiered her first feature, Daughters of the Dust, at the Sundance Film Festival, which went on to win the award for Excellence in Cinematography. The film is set in the early 1900s and follows a Gullah family of women preparing to move from the Sea Islands off the coast of South Carolina to mainland America. Daughters of the Dust was the first film directed by an African American woman to receive a national release. 

The film appears to be a source of inspiration for Beyonce’s Lemonade. The visual album echoes imagery from the film with shots of young African-American women in the Southern wild and desolate beaches wearing turn of the century garments. 

Daughters of the Dust screened at the Festival again in 2012 as a part of the “From the Collection” program. The film has recently been digitally restored by Cohen Film Collection and will screen at film festivals and theaters in addition to a Blu-ray release this fall. Click here to view a trailer for Daughters of the Dust.

Film stills courtesy of Daughters of the Dust

thechanelmuse:

Here’s the full context of his statement:

“Steven Caple Jr., the director of Jordan’s next film, Creed II, calls this moment of black solidarity in Hollywood a ‘movement.’ During the filming last March, Jordan and Caple often talked about black historical figures whose stories might make a great movie or TV series, like Fred Hampton, the Black Panther who was murdered in his apartment in 1969, or Mansa Musa, a Malian historical figure of the 14th century known to many African-Americans but virtually unknown to white people. Musa was reputedly one of the richest men in the world. ‘When people look at black people it’s hard for them to think beyond slavery,’ says Caple.

“’We don’t have any mythology, black mythology, or folklore,’ Jordan explains to me as we cruise past billboards for Atlanta and HBO’s Ballers in West Hollywood. DJ Khaled’s ‘I’m the One’ is on the car stereo, and I notice Jordan’s iPhone alias is ‘Bruce Leroy,’ the black martial-arts hero of the 1985 film The Last Dragon. ‘Creating our own mythology is very important because it helps dream,” says Jordan. “You help people dream.’”

Source

Context. I’m assuming he meant we don’t have any Black mythology/folklore in TV and films. It’s half true. There have been movies made, but it’s only a very small handful. Films like Eve’s Bayou, Daughters of the Dust, and Beloved (an adaptation of Toni Morrison’s book of the same name) quickly come to mind that contain folkloric/mythological elements.

The way the writer for Vanity Fair left his statement lingering and didn’t ask further questions so he could fully flesh out his thoughts without leaving one to guess what he was referring to since the mention of popular tv show billboards followed his statement is failed journalism. White journalism. TF we need to know about what was on the radio and his phone in that moment?!…

Here’s some further readings about Black folklore / mythology:

  • List of books on Myths, Legends, and Folklore of African-Americans (Goodreads)
  • The Origin of Zombies and More: “Zombie folklore has been around for centuries in Haiti, possibly originating in the 17th century when West African slaves were brought in to work on Haiti’s sugar cane plantations. Brutal conditions left the slaves longing for freedom. According to some reports, the life—or rather afterlife—of a zombie represented the horrific plight of slavery.” (Source: www.history.com)
  • “The Tragic, Forgotten History of Zombies”: The horror-movie trope owes its heritage to Haitian slaves, who imagined being imprisoned in their bodies forever. (Source: The Atlantic)
  • Collection of books on Mythology and Folklore of the African Diaspora (Barnes & Nobles)
  • Anansi is an Akan folktale character. He often takes the shape of a spider and is considered to be the spirit of all knowledge of stories. He is also one of the most important characters of West African and Caribbean folklore. (wikipedia)
  • A Boo Hag is a mythical creature in the folklore of Gullah culture. It is a regionalized version of the Hag myth. According to the legend, Boo Hags are similar to vampires. (wikipedia)
Source: thechanelmuse