Gullah-Geechee Diasporas

Knowledge, Culture, and Black Lowcountry Legacies

Elizabeth J West editor Muhammad Fraser-Rahim editor

Format:Paperback

Publisher:University of South Carolina Press

Published:9th Jul '26

£22.99

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Gullah-Geechee Diasporas cover

Gullah-Geechee Diasporas counters romantic portrayals of Gullah-Geechee culture as a static, geographically isolated remnant of the past. Across eight interdisciplinary essays, the book's contributors trace an arc, described in time and space, from pre-Middle Passage Africa through the Caribbean and coastal United States into the interior South and beyond. They consider how Gullah-Geechee cultural traditions are simultaneously rooted in the physical Lowcountry homeland and represent a dynamic cultural ethos that is not bounded by geography and has shaped Black life across North America and the Caribbean Basin. Together, these essays reveal the resilience and adaptability of people whose history defies myths of isolation and immobility. Gullah-Geechee Diasporas is a fresh framework for understanding African American cultural origins, migrations, and transformations.

"Even before the US civil war, Gullah influences were seen in places such as Mississippi, Texas and the Caribbean, showing that the Gullah Geechee didn't remain remote, but rather migrated throughout the country, leaving evidence of their presence in their new homes. A new book, Gullah-Geechee Diasporas: Knowledge, Culture, and Black Lowcountry Legacies aims to highlight this impact through eight essays by pre-eminent scholars and historians. Edited by Muhammad Fraser-Rahim and Elizabeth J West, the text crafts a wider understanding of Gullah Geechee life and influence, through language, music and religion." - Adria Walker, The Guardian

ISBN: 9781643366395

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: unknown

216 pages