Our mission is to introduce the Colorado region to one of the oldest African American Community Cultures still living in the United States.
The Gullah/Geechee people of the Sea Islands of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, and North Carolina are a distinctive people. They are also the only African American population of the United States with a separate, long-standing name identifying them as a separate people. They are distinct among African American peoples in this development of a tradition that depends as much upon maritime resourc
es as upon land resources. Historically they are speakers of the only true African American creole language of the continental United States. Gullah/Geechee people are the most African of African Americans in physical type, language, and culture; yet they are a uniquely American cultural type formed by the fusion of African cultural heritage and American experience. Through the diffusion and expansion of their population, the Gullah/Geechee people have become the source for many elements noted in other African American cultures. Of all African American cultures in the United States, the folk customs, oral history and literature, crafts and arts of the Gullah/Geechee people show the strongest continuities with indigenous cultures of Africa. The Gullah/Geechee culture also bears strong similarities to creole and maroon cultures of the Caribbean. In many respects the Gullah/Geechee cultural region directly parallels that of the Afro-Carib Garifuna people of Belize. The “cultural space" of these Garifuna people was selected in 2001 by UNESCO, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, as a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity, a distinction for which the Gullah/Geechee people themselves might qualify (Global Garifuna Network, Electronic Document; UNESCO, Electronic Document). Thus, Gullah/Geechee cultural heritage, eating habits, cooking styles, music, language and traditions have made significant contributions, not only to the lives of southerners but also to all Americans. Colorado Friends of the Gullah/Geechee want to recognize and support the pivotal place that Gullah/Geechee people, language, folklore, and culture have occupied in African American and American landscape. So come join us in support of and celebration of the Gullah/Geechee people and their culture!
