Kumbaya, “Come by here” in the Gullah language,
the song of peace, the song of hope, is finally getting its due. Henry Wylie, a member of the Gullah Geechee
community, recorded the first known
version of the song in 1926. After
my blogpost last week about the song’s origins in the traditions of the Gullah
Geechee African American people of Southeastern Georgia, over 400,000 of
you viewed the post and voiced your enthusiasm for the Library of Congress, the
Georgia Legislature and the United States Congress giving credit where credit
is due! A big thanks also to John Eligon of the New York Times, who read this post, reached out to me, Griffin
Lotson and others involved in this effort and wrote an excellent piece on the
origin and impact of kumbaya.
So many of
you wrote poignantly about growing up with this song and how much it meant to
you. Many people remembered fondly parents singing the song to them or singing
it around a campfire. Literally, people
from all over the world, from Argentina to New Zealand, wrote about its
significance in their lives and seemed to bond even more with the song knowing
that it was a song borne of pain and suffering but also hope in the African
American community.
That the
song is a plea to God for help was not lost on most readers; it affirmed how
this song speaks to them, especially when they are in pain.
So as we
celebrate its origin and its continued impact, I encourage you to support
continued efforts of the Gullah community to preserve this incredible
culture. Here’s why this is so
important.
The Problem: Gentrification of Gullah
lands
Gullah
Geechee communities on the Sea Islands are under threat from rising land prices
and the practices of predatory developers.
In years past, some developers have used loopholes in the ways in which
property is inherited to get the land auctioned to the highest bidder. With island land now being
in high demand, property values have risen sharply and increased property taxes
threaten to remove those who have for over two hundred years stayed close to
the land and created this culture from which hails this significant song. The Gullah Geechee Heritage Corridor Federal Commission, many of whose
commissioners hail from the community, is doing its best to preserve the
culture, but public support for their efforts
could make that vital difference.
What can be done?
Should these
lands be given landmark status so that the community can maintain their
historical and cultural ties to the land? Could a community land trust be
started and funded to take the land out of the real estate market and allow it
to be managed in ways that help the community?
Maybe this would give communities like Sapelo Island, Harris Neck as
well as others the stability they need to plan for the future. Finally, would
this ensure that those interested in cultural heritage tourism, and at the
moment, that is many of us, would continue to have great places to visit?
People are
already flocking by the thousands to the
annual Gullah festivals and I can only imagine that more activities like these
would be an added boon to the economy of this region.
What do you the readers think?
Furthermore,
could letters to the Georgia Governor, Senators
and other local elected officials
make a difference? I am wondering out
loud if there is a way that public support could help these landowners and culture bearers hold onto their land.
After all it
is
historic land. This is the case not just
because of the song kumbaya but because ironically these lands represent the
only instance where African Americans actually received reparations.
Forty Acres and A Mule
In my recent
book, The Weeping Time, I document
the fact that according Sherman’s infamous Field Order no. 15, on January 16,
1865, ex slaves on the Sea Islands were
granted plots of forty acres by the Union General. These were the only former slaves who ever
received reparations in all of United States.
In fact, there were the only people of African descent in the New World who
ever received any reparations at all! Efforts in the Caribbean are afoot, but as of this writing, this reality has not changed.
Some 40,000
of the newly freed slaves were to be settled on 400,000 acres of land and given
mules for farming which came to be known as “Sherman’s Reservation.” This meant that the Black people of the Sea
Islands experienced something that few others did at this time: freedom with
teeth- freedom and property
ownership.
They could
never be fully repaid for 246 years of unrequited
labor, but they were given something to even the playing field.
But it was
not to last.
As I say in
my book: “ Sadly, no one could have
anticipated that this order could have been so short lived. Shortly after Lincoln’s assassination on April
14, 1865, President Andrew Johnson
promptly rescinded the order and returned the lands back to their
original owners. It had been a bold
experiment, but now it was over.”
The amazing
thing is that in spite of this backlash and retrenchment, many Sea Islanders
and their families through continued hard work, persistence and banding together, found a way to
purchase land near or on their old plantations and hold onto it.
Now some are
finding that legacy threatened.
Land and
culture go hand in hand. For all our sakes, we hope they can preserve both.
Kumbaya My
Lord, Kumbaya
Anne C. Bailey
Author of The Weeping Time: Memory and the LargestSlave Auction in American History. (Cambridge University Press, 2018)
Editorial
Assistance from Professor Audrey McFarlane.
Unmarked graves on Butler island that Butler Island descendant and cultural tour operator, Tiffany Shea Young, helped bring to light.
Gullah Geechee Ring Shouters, who share the oral traditions and songs of Southeastern Georgia and the Gullah Geechee community all over the world.
https://www.geecheegullahringshouters.com/
Unmarked graves on Butler island that Butler Island descendant and cultural tour operator, Tiffany Shea Young, helped bring to light.
A. Bailey, The Weeping Time: Memory and the Largest Slave Auction in American History
S. Winick, https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2018/02/kumbaya-history-of-an-old-song/
No comments:
Post a Comment