Queen Quet Marquetta Goodwine is the queen mother, chieftess and spokesperson of the the Gullah Geechee Nation in the southeast United States[Allison Griner]
The cicadas' song is rising with the midday heat, and Queen Quet Marquetta Goodwine flits from one canopy tent to the next. The fish fry is well under way. There are guests to greet, conversations to be had, and help to offer.
Tall, with a head crowned with cowry shells and robes that flow to the ground, Goodwine looks every bit like a head of state. And that is in part because she is one. The Gullah Geechee Nation in the southeast United States elected her as its head pun de bodee: its queen mother, chieftess and spokesperson.
A self-declared "nation within a nation," the Gullah Geechee people are the descendants of African slaves, isolated on the coastal islands stretching from north Florida to North Carolina.
Their ancestors combined west and central African traditions to create a culture entirely of their own. The language they speak is the only African American creole created in the United States, a mash-up of English and African languages like Krio, Mende and Vai.
But as Goodwine settles beneath the shade of an oak tree, she recalls the scepticism the Gullah Geechee face. "We don't really know if they have a real culture," she remembers hearing. The misconceptions worry Goodwine. She fears her culture is in danger of being lost and forgotten, especially as black identity is reduced to what she calls a "monolith".
When African American studies first began, there was a prevailing assumption that slavery had destroyed any culture the slaves had brought from Africa. What could have possibly survived more than two centuries of brutality and oppression?
Some academics concluded that blacks in the US had no culture "independent of general American culture". That view was championed by Swedish Nobel laureate Karl Gunnar Myrdal in a searing study of the institutional barriers facing African Americans.
Myrdal's work was so powerful that it was cited in the decision to desegregate American schools – but his assertion that "American Negro culture" was merely a "distorted development, or an unhealthy condition, of American culture" continues to ignite debate. Was every speck of African culture lost in the trans-Atlantic slave trade? Is America's history of discrimination the single defining aspect of African American culture?
Goodwine bristles at the idea. After all, the Gullah Geechee Nation continues traditions born in Africa, long before white colonisers arrived.
Beloveds
I apologize that the blog format would not conform to my 5 efforts to
publish this article so that the paragraphs and ideas were correctly
displayed. Only wanting to present you with what you deserve ~ my Best
effort ~ pardon the need to click the link below to enjoy the
information about my own cultural heritage. Yep! Half of my heritage is pure Gullah from my father.Click here to access the article directly and enjoy the two 2 minute interviews that add deeper insight.
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