My Father is from Nigeria & My Mother is African American, when I first heard of the Gullah a few years back I one day decide that when I got a little older that I would love to move & reside with them & learn this wonderful beautiful language, for me this is like a coming home party for me both emotional & spiritual, because has a young 25 year old African American man I feel a kinship with the Gullah & discover a whole other part of myself.
@PrinceNoirAmericain I have, & now I want to learn this Beautiful Culture & I have some roots in the Gullah Culture on my Mother side, all & all I just want to feel the whole history of my Ancestors & fully connect to my African Heritage.
@PrinceNoirAmericain I'm sure he has already, having him as a father, but the Gullah culture is more fragile because it is not being reinforced by those around us. If he has a chance to connect with the language and culture, then by all means, he should. It was born out of the blood, bones, and tears of our ancestors, a culture they created under unbelievable odds and should be cherished just as much as any other. My children will speak our language.
I'm not so sure. From what I have observed, marital relationships between African men and African American women don't usually work out the way they intended them, like most relationships one might say.
But very often, these "conscious" AA sisters marry African men in an understandable desire to reconnect with their roots and to bring their children up in African culture (whatever the husband's culture is). However, the opposite result is produced and the children end up being
This is interesting, because I've noticed that for a lot of African people, we take it for granted that they're growing up in their culture and language when the exact opposite is often the case - even more so when living in an outside country (in the West). My husband and his family speak the language and even I do now, though I'm still learning; but most of his peers do not.
@MeAndHubbyToo We often make the assumption that the African half of the relationship has his language, culture, and religion intact, but I've found that more often than not, this is not the case (even for those born on the continent). A lot of the language, religion, and so on has been traded for Western language and religion. It's really sad, and I pray that more resist and embrace their own African-based languages and culture. Relationships between the two require education & understanding.
@MeAndHubbyToo Even though there are many similarities between African-based cultures in the diaspora and those from the continent, there are also many differences. It takes recognition of this and a commitment to family and cohesion and work get past those challenges. It's also important that it's the coming together of two families, and not just a relationship out of attraction or romance. We're in it for the long haul and for our families.
just as, if not more, americanized than a child born to two AA parents. Now of course this can be explained in part by the irresistible influence of the dominant culture but "cultural negligence" explains the rest. Of course there are exceptions but very rarely do I run into AAs, born to an AA parent and an African parent, who are able to speak the father's language, which is intimately tied to cultural identity.
I wish my paternal grandmother could see this video and how different people think of Gullah/Geechee culture. She was so ashamed of this aspect of herself. It breaks my heart to think about what we lost as a family because of the mindset people had about this culture.
If im not mistaken, i believe the 60 minutes piece on Clarance Thomas stated that he was a Gullah Geechee from the sea islands of GA... If the Gullah holdout long enough they can probably buy back all their land for pennies on the dollar...Hilton Head is the second fasted falling real estate market in the entire country...The low country of SC consists of Mosquito's,Fire Ants,100 degree humidity,poor soil,and a history of poverty...There's a good reason this area avoided development for so long.
excellent video. I'm from the caribbean. Melinin(black)people all over the world connect in many ways.Whitie luvs black people rich culture-even when they act like they hate it. that's why they want you to forget your language & stories.. so they can say you never existed and claim the stories & land for themselves! KEEP SPEAKING YOUR LANGUAGE!
Gambian Akus come from the Creoles of Sierra Leone, and the Creoles are descended from Gullahs through the "Nova Scotians" who founded Freetown in 1792. Many were from Virginia and many came from South Carolina, and the Gullah speaking people among them were influential on creating the Krio language which is the parent of the Aku language of Gambia.
@ridim2007 The Krio language is the native language of the Creole or Krio people in Sierra Leone. They are descendants of the original Settlers or Nova Scotian Settlers who originated in Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia (mainly) which may explain the similarities between Gullah and Krio. Also the Krios are descended from the Jamaican Maroons who spoke a similar English to the Settlers.
@ridim2007 The Liberated Africans are also the ancestors of the Creoles and they spoke various African languages and they also spoke a form of Creolized English. Many Creoles or Krios settled in the Gambia and are known there as the Aku people. That is why Aku English is similar to the Krio language. Creoles also settled in Nigeria, Fernando Po, Cameroon, Guinea, and Ghana contributing or bringing in their form of English or their language.
The Americo Liberians or Congoe are similar to Krios
@netaddict6989 I think one of the problems is that those of us who are observing the languages and comparing are not linguists and do not have a knowledge of the language throughout the continent and diaspora to compare, so we do so superficially (attributing it to the Caribbean or saying it "sounds Caribbean") instead of realizing it sounds African. We also don't realize that our people didn't speak the way they do now, years ago, especially during the American Colonization Society movement.
@MeAndHubbyToo "Integration" and the civil rights movement would force those of us who had no contact with Whites before to live amongst them and to slowly decreolize our language. But if we know of the language spoken in Brazil, and we look at African-American language (not including the Gullah), then we know that the same linguistic patterns and word patterns are being implemented. If we look at African lingua, especially Bantu (our people are primarily), then we see the same patterns.
@MeAndHubbyToo And if we compare all of that to the Gullah language, then we see the same exact patterns being implemented. Lorenzo Dow Turner touched on this in his amazing work and briefly mentioned the Brazil/French Caribbean connection, which I've studied in depth learning the languages. If we go to the deep south, we see the same patterns and even pronunciation. The problem is that American linguists take the easy way out and focus on Anglo countries, instead of also looking to...
@MeAndHubbyToo Portuguese/French speaking countries because of the Western language barrier. I hope to publish my research on these connections.
Btw, not only should we realize that our people were all speaking a different form of language at the time, but we should also note that the language was already forming throughout the coasts of Africa, where they were "interacting" with the Whites to sell our people. So the language was already a pidgin at that point.
Nor are they knowledgeable of the father's culture. Perhaps this is due to the fact that culture is "generally" transmitted/passed down through women. Women are the guardians of culture if you will. They are the ones who preserve, maintain and perpetuate the traditions and customs.
Also, in the American context, Africans themselves do a poor job of transmitting their cultural values and beliefs to their children. So of course if one parent is not even African, in the sense of
"recent African extraction", it's all the more complicated. A pan-African African American brother and a non westernized African woman have a better chance of building an African kingdom than the opposite. Because in this type of situation, the man is in control. The man decides what the child's 1st language is going to be. So an AA man can easily tell his Igbo wife to only speak to their children in Igbo and she will do it.
He also decides what religion the child is going to practice and the woman takes care of the rest. Naturally, she will raise her child the same way she was raised.
Anyway, I strongly support black/black marriages, black love is BEAUTIFUL, i'm just not so sure that a child born to an AA mother and an AA father has a good understanding of the father's culture. Eating fufu and a strong belief in the value of education don't cut it. When you really get deep into African culture
@ridim2007 The Americo Liberian influence that created Liberian Settler English and Liberian English (in my opinion) sounds the most like the Gullah language in accent, tone, pronunciation, and how quickly it is spoken.
It almost sounds (Liberian English and Gullah) Caribbean like, yet one can still tell it is black American English. In early Sierra Leone it was hard for some visitors to Sierra Leone to distinguish between the English of the Nova Scotian Settlers and the Maroons.
@netaddict6989 You took the words right out of my mouth my friend. I don't even know what these people are talking about because In africa as a whole no other country english sounds similar to liberians. In fact west africans and africans in general will bluntly tell you that they can not understand liberians english. Like you said " Liberians english sounds the most like the Gullah language in accent, tone, pronunciation, and how quickly it is spoken" .
if a persons language is destroyed so is the unity of the people, thus the meaning of colonization, strip a peoples culture religion customs traditions and their relation to nature or the supreme force and you will master that people,
@7:13 Smart!!! You CANNOT tell them too much elder, or you'll never be able to hold on to your land! We must use discretion.
MeAndHubbyToo 9 months ago
ini
tianitra 1 year ago
My Father is from Nigeria & My Mother is African American, when I first heard of the Gullah a few years back I one day decide that when I got a little older that I would love to move & reside with them & learn this wonderful beautiful language, for me this is like a coming home party for me both emotional & spiritual, because has a young 25 year old African American man I feel a kinship with the Gullah & discover a whole other part of myself.
Harlemlate 1 year ago 4
@Harlemlate
Why not learn your dad's culture? Assuming you haven't already....
PrinceNoirAmericain 1 year ago
@PrinceNoirAmericain I have, & now I want to learn this Beautiful Culture & I have some roots in the Gullah Culture on my Mother side, all & all I just want to feel the whole history of my Ancestors & fully connect to my African Heritage.
Harlemlate 1 year ago
@PrinceNoirAmericain I'm sure he has already, having him as a father, but the Gullah culture is more fragile because it is not being reinforced by those around us. If he has a chance to connect with the language and culture, then by all means, he should. It was born out of the blood, bones, and tears of our ancestors, a culture they created under unbelievable odds and should be cherished just as much as any other. My children will speak our language.
MeAndHubbyToo 9 months ago
@MeAndHubbyToo
I'm not so sure. From what I have observed, marital relationships between African men and African American women don't usually work out the way they intended them, like most relationships one might say.
But very often, these "conscious" AA sisters marry African men in an understandable desire to reconnect with their roots and to bring their children up in African culture (whatever the husband's culture is). However, the opposite result is produced and the children end up being
PrinceNoirAmericain 9 months ago
@PrinceNoirAmericain
This is interesting, because I've noticed that for a lot of African people, we take it for granted that they're growing up in their culture and language when the exact opposite is often the case - even more so when living in an outside country (in the West). My husband and his family speak the language and even I do now, though I'm still learning; but most of his peers do not.
MeAndHubbyToo 9 months ago
@MeAndHubbyToo We often make the assumption that the African half of the relationship has his language, culture, and religion intact, but I've found that more often than not, this is not the case (even for those born on the continent). A lot of the language, religion, and so on has been traded for Western language and religion. It's really sad, and I pray that more resist and embrace their own African-based languages and culture. Relationships between the two require education & understanding.
MeAndHubbyToo 9 months ago
@MeAndHubbyToo Even though there are many similarities between African-based cultures in the diaspora and those from the continent, there are also many differences. It takes recognition of this and a commitment to family and cohesion and work get past those challenges. It's also important that it's the coming together of two families, and not just a relationship out of attraction or romance. We're in it for the long haul and for our families.
MeAndHubbyToo 9 months ago
@MeAndHubbyToo
I totally agree with you, i've been telling my fellow AA bros and sis that for a longtime.
You speak French fluently, right?
PrinceNoirAmericain 9 months ago
@MeAndHubbyToo
just as, if not more, americanized than a child born to two AA parents. Now of course this can be explained in part by the irresistible influence of the dominant culture but "cultural negligence" explains the rest. Of course there are exceptions but very rarely do I run into AAs, born to an AA parent and an African parent, who are able to speak the father's language, which is intimately tied to cultural identity.
PrinceNoirAmericain 9 months ago
I wish my paternal grandmother could see this video and how different people think of Gullah/Geechee culture. She was so ashamed of this aspect of herself. It breaks my heart to think about what we lost as a family because of the mindset people had about this culture.
novembertalespinner 1 year ago
Half my fam lives in McClellanville (sp?)
CookmanRob 2 years ago
If im not mistaken, i believe the 60 minutes piece on Clarance Thomas stated that he was a Gullah Geechee from the sea islands of GA... If the Gullah holdout long enough they can probably buy back all their land for pennies on the dollar...Hilton Head is the second fasted falling real estate market in the entire country...The low country of SC consists of Mosquito's,Fire Ants,100 degree humidity,poor soil,and a history of poverty...There's a good reason this area avoided development for so long.
rainmechanic 2 years ago
good video
Sing4Ni 2 years ago
They sound like Americans
But they sound slightly Caribbean..in reality they sound like Liberians or in particular Americo Liberians.
netaddict6989 3 years ago
@netaddict6989 I am a liberian and they sound just like me...I love this
fineguh 1 day ago
excellent video. I'm from the caribbean. Melinin(black)people all over the world connect in many ways.Whitie luvs black people rich culture-even when they act like they hate it. that's why they want you to forget your language & stories.. so they can say you never existed and claim the stories & land for themselves! KEEP SPEAKING YOUR LANGUAGE!
ccisis 3 years ago 4
It's so much like the one spoken in west African countries, like Liberia, siera Leon, Nigeria , Gambia etc and in Caribbean too.
I'm a Gambian...I wish all black people to be united one day soon, and the language is one of the key element to play that role
ridim2007 3 years ago 7
Gambian Akus come from the Creoles of Sierra Leone, and the Creoles are descended from Gullahs through the "Nova Scotians" who founded Freetown in 1792. Many were from Virginia and many came from South Carolina, and the Gullah speaking people among them were influential on creating the Krio language which is the parent of the Aku language of Gambia.
netaddict6989 3 years ago
Thanks a lot for the information you have given me
ridim2007 3 years ago
Have you ever been to Gambia before?
ridim2007 3 years ago
@ridim2007 The Krio language is the native language of the Creole or Krio people in Sierra Leone. They are descendants of the original Settlers or Nova Scotian Settlers who originated in Virginia, South Carolina and Georgia (mainly) which may explain the similarities between Gullah and Krio. Also the Krios are descended from the Jamaican Maroons who spoke a similar English to the Settlers.
netaddict6989 1 year ago
@ridim2007 The Liberated Africans are also the ancestors of the Creoles and they spoke various African languages and they also spoke a form of Creolized English. Many Creoles or Krios settled in the Gambia and are known there as the Aku people. That is why Aku English is similar to the Krio language. Creoles also settled in Nigeria, Fernando Po, Cameroon, Guinea, and Ghana contributing or bringing in their form of English or their language.
The Americo Liberians or Congoe are similar to Krios
netaddict6989 1 year ago
@netaddict6989 I think one of the problems is that those of us who are observing the languages and comparing are not linguists and do not have a knowledge of the language throughout the continent and diaspora to compare, so we do so superficially (attributing it to the Caribbean or saying it "sounds Caribbean") instead of realizing it sounds African. We also don't realize that our people didn't speak the way they do now, years ago, especially during the American Colonization Society movement.
MeAndHubbyToo 9 months ago
@MeAndHubbyToo "Integration" and the civil rights movement would force those of us who had no contact with Whites before to live amongst them and to slowly decreolize our language. But if we know of the language spoken in Brazil, and we look at African-American language (not including the Gullah), then we know that the same linguistic patterns and word patterns are being implemented. If we look at African lingua, especially Bantu (our people are primarily), then we see the same patterns.
MeAndHubbyToo 9 months ago
@MeAndHubbyToo And if we compare all of that to the Gullah language, then we see the same exact patterns being implemented. Lorenzo Dow Turner touched on this in his amazing work and briefly mentioned the Brazil/French Caribbean connection, which I've studied in depth learning the languages. If we go to the deep south, we see the same patterns and even pronunciation. The problem is that American linguists take the easy way out and focus on Anglo countries, instead of also looking to...
MeAndHubbyToo 9 months ago
@MeAndHubbyToo Portuguese/French speaking countries because of the Western language barrier. I hope to publish my research on these connections.
Btw, not only should we realize that our people were all speaking a different form of language at the time, but we should also note that the language was already forming throughout the coasts of Africa, where they were "interacting" with the Whites to sell our people. So the language was already a pidgin at that point.
MeAndHubbyToo 9 months ago
@MeAndHubbyToo
Nor are they knowledgeable of the father's culture. Perhaps this is due to the fact that culture is "generally" transmitted/passed down through women. Women are the guardians of culture if you will. They are the ones who preserve, maintain and perpetuate the traditions and customs.
Also, in the American context, Africans themselves do a poor job of transmitting their cultural values and beliefs to their children. So of course if one parent is not even African, in the sense of
PrinceNoirAmericain 9 months ago
@MeAndHubbyToo
"recent African extraction", it's all the more complicated. A pan-African African American brother and a non westernized African woman have a better chance of building an African kingdom than the opposite. Because in this type of situation, the man is in control. The man decides what the child's 1st language is going to be. So an AA man can easily tell his Igbo wife to only speak to their children in Igbo and she will do it.
PrinceNoirAmericain 9 months ago
@MeAndHubbyToo
He also decides what religion the child is going to practice and the woman takes care of the rest. Naturally, she will raise her child the same way she was raised.
Anyway, I strongly support black/black marriages, black love is BEAUTIFUL, i'm just not so sure that a child born to an AA mother and an AA father has a good understanding of the father's culture. Eating fufu and a strong belief in the value of education don't cut it. When you really get deep into African culture
PrinceNoirAmericain 9 months ago
@MeAndHubbyToo
it is an endless world of discovery.
Take care sis
PrinceNoirAmericain 9 months ago
@MeAndHubbyToo
I meant to say "i'm just not so sure that a child born to an AA mother and an African father has a good
PrinceNoirAmericain 9 months ago
@MeAndHubbyToo
PS: if my memory serves me correctly, you are married to a brother from Cameroon and you have lived in both Cameroon and France
PrinceNoirAmericain 9 months ago
@ridim2007 The Americo Liberian influence that created Liberian Settler English and Liberian English (in my opinion) sounds the most like the Gullah language in accent, tone, pronunciation, and how quickly it is spoken.
It almost sounds (Liberian English and Gullah) Caribbean like, yet one can still tell it is black American English. In early Sierra Leone it was hard for some visitors to Sierra Leone to distinguish between the English of the Nova Scotian Settlers and the Maroons.
netaddict6989 1 year ago
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@netaddict6989 You took the words right out of my mouth my friend. I don't even know what these people are talking about because In africa as a whole no other country english sounds similar to liberians. In fact west africans and africans in general will bluntly tell you that they can not understand liberians english. Like you said " Liberians english sounds the most like the Gullah language in accent, tone, pronunciation, and how quickly it is spoken" .
fineguh 1 day ago
if a persons language is destroyed so is the unity of the people, thus the meaning of colonization, strip a peoples culture religion customs traditions and their relation to nature or the supreme force and you will master that people,
perseveranceprevails 3 years ago 3
I understood every word they said ....I don't see why other people don't get it
lykia 3 years ago
dey --- there
kum ya --- come here
This is so much like the west indian dialect. I am west indian.
cbgsh 3 years ago 8
@cbgsh they are afro-creole relatives
inhumanhyena 11 months ago
This is very similar to the Caribbean dialects.
cbgsh 3 years ago 2
Peace and blessings to the entire ARIKAN DIASPORA!
shadayafreeman 4 years ago 2
I Love my American Native Ancestral language
Mrcstigallese 4 years ago