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Georgia State University has received a $500,000 grant to support research and education focused on preserving and protecting the land of the Gullah Geechee communities in Georgia and South Carolina. The funding will help establish the Gullah Geechee Sacred Land Project (GGSLP), which aims to recover and maintain genealogical records, spatial lineages, spiritual practices, and safeguard “the places where those communities interred their ancestors.“
GSU professors and historians Ras Michael Brown and Tiffany A. Player will lead the GGSLP program, which will feature four new courses on oral tradition and folklore and immersive service-learning experiences at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Graduate students in the program can earn a certificate in Cultural Resource Management.
“The Mellon Foundation’s funding allows us to strengthen our relationships with Gullah/Geechee communities and support their ongoing efforts to honor their ancestors and the legacies they left for descendants,” Brown said in a statement. “This kind of community engagement should be fundamental to university-based historical research and preservation activities, and we’re grateful to the Mellon Foundation and our community partners for this opportunity to fortify connections between the past and the present in preparation for challenges and possibilities ahead.”
The Gullah Geechee people are descendants of formerly enslaved West Africans who were brought to the coastal regions of North and South Carolina, Georgia, and Northern Florida due to their agricultural skills, particularly in marshlands reminiscent of their homeland. They were primarily recognized for their rice cultivation.
After slavery ended, they remained in the area now known as the Gullah Geechee Heritage Corridor. The Gullah Geechee people maintained their land and developed a culture heavily influenced by West African traditions. One of these is the Geechee language, a creole that combines English with various West African dialects. The Gullah Geechee people have lost a significant amount of land due to global warming and gentrification. The loss of graveyards is drawing growing concern, as environmental dangers, such as saltwater erosion and land development, threaten their preservation. The GGSLP program aims to raise awareness and address these threats through education and advocacy.
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