Gullah Geechee -- the me I tried to flee: Ron Daise at TEDxCharleston
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- Опубліковано 14 тра 2014
- Gift yourself with the impact of your own culture, says educator and historian, Ron Daise, and enrich the lives of others around you.
Author, performing artist, former Chairman of the federal Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission, and current Vice President for Creative Education at Brookgreen Gardens, where he presents the "Gullah Geechee Program Series." rondaise.com/
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)
“Tenki fa teachin hunnuh chillin bout mi ancesta dem” (Thank you for teaching the children about my ancestors). We as the African and the African diaspora should embrace our cultures in this western dominated world. Diversity and pride is the key to human happiness. ✊🏿✊🏾✊🏽✊🏻
Love from West Africa ❤🇳🇬
@@ms.rstake_1211 Tenki! Hunnuh an e kinfolk fambly dem be de foundation fo haw we da kaym fa be. (Thank you! You and your family be our foundation for how we Gullah came to be!) we will never forget where we came from. 🖤
Sounds like Jamaican patois
I understood as a Jamaican.
The accent is very distinct. I was getting directions from a cab driver in DC & the way he pronounced "lane" got my attention. I asked where he was from & in 5 min. of discussion found he'd gone to high school with my Dad & knew my family. Always feels different being around people from home. Feels like love.
An it is love my fam
I love watching these videos about Gullah Geechee culture because it reminds me of how all of us in the diaspora are connected. My family is Jamaican and I hear it in his language and stories... it has the same West African remnants. Those baskets look just like Jamaican weaved baskets! We need to respect the resilience of our ancestors by keeping their culture alive.
Juliet DeLeon exactly! We are all one and I hope more of us in the diaspora AND Africa can understand this🙏🏾✊🏾
Gullah Gullah island was such a wonderful show. One of the few (if only) children’s shows back in the day that celebrated the African culture of america.
As a white guy in Texas, it wasn’t until I grew up that I realized the deep impact of early childhood exposure and familiarization to people who live a different culture.
When people say america has no culture, they are clearly looking in the wrong places.
Maybe they mean it has not one culture but rather a mix of all different cultures.
Yep... my children watched that show (and I with them). Great show!
I will no longer shy from my gullah culture I will go down south Carolina n embrace my culture.
Shamika Charlton I really encourage you to do that and make sure you spread the culture and knowledge to your children and family for preservation. It’s such a interesting part of our afro American culture✊🏾🤞🏾
It's such a wonderful culture. From the food, to the music, basket weaving, language, story telling, everything. It's very important that you past the knowledge on or it will be lost. Many have already lost or sold their land.
you should never - every culture is unique
Shamika Charlton I visited a village in Sheldon SC. I am moving there now
Amen brother.
That uncle Ron of the Gullah Gullah Island show 😍😍😍
My favorite childhood show!😍😍😍😍
mine too!! binya binya!
me too and my daughters! i miss that show
My son learned to tell time so he wouldn't miss it.
I thought that was him!
I'm Geeche too, my children and I loved your Gullah Gullah Island Show for kids :)
ascentttt you should get in touch with your mainland African heritage since Gullahs culture and genetics are from there its great information to raise your children with the culture
@@rakimd5461 what do you mean?
K1llahB33 they mean that the Gullah and geechee people have west African ancestry. But the majority of African Americans have west African ancestry as well.....but the Gullah geechee have preserved much more than the rest of us african Americans
The Gullah Gechee in general don't know how fortunate they are. At least they are connected to something.
jaymillymills yes they do. They understand their importance but things are hard for them down there sometimes. When I get older I plan to visit the sea islands, experience, and then spread knowledge of their culture cuz it’s too interesting to ingnore🙏🏾✊🏾
We are all the same people. It's just easier to maintain more of our culture when we are insulted from the colonizers. I was born on the west coast. I wonder if my great grandma and granddaddy had some gulluh geechee roots. I now think about a few things I remember they used to say. I know they came from Florida, but I don't know where. Just my suspicion. I remember my granddaddy talking crazy stuff about west Indians and people from "those islands." We have got to let go of our ridiculous love of country and start to focus more on our people first.
We are the ones that facilitated our survival, not the country that has oppressed us.
I loved Gullah Gullah Island as a child and had no idea Gullah was an actual culture! I want to learn more about it now!
@@leziaboudreaux8220 none taken! It just hadn’t occurred to me as a young child.
@@leziaboudreaux8220 ummm because it was a tv show. you do realize there's dwarvish language, klingon and huttese. But I don't think there's a battle on Tatooine for the freedom of the galaxy. No offense, but you come off as offensive.
@@leziaboudreaux8220 I mean as a 4 year old we aren't really thinking that deeply about it. We werent taught in school. We were kids. It must be nice for you to have been so flawlessly perfect as a child that you already knew about lesser known cultures that aren't anywhere near where you live.
As a Sierra Leonean the last words weak me(mi don don )😁😁
Ibtar Tarally Old Lowcountry talk would say, “Mi yeddi em say ‘mi don don,’ I too weak!”
I’m Gullah Geechee and proud!
I came here after reading a article in our local newspaper about how the islands are being affected by climate change
I'm from Guyana "dayclean" is a term we also use to mean dawn. We also tend to drop the "th" for "d" we call it Guyanese creolese
We as Africans are so connected...
I remember him as a kid on Gullah Gullah Island :p
THAT'S WHAT THAT SHOW WAS ABOUT! :D Omg, explains so much!!!
@@digleman1 Wow! I'm embarrassed to say I'm just getting it as well!
Yes!
But he was the dad, not a kid.
Same here
😮
I’m geechee and proud. I’ve always been picked at the way I talk. Thank you so much.
My great grandfather and my grandmother spoke that way. Growing up we just thought they was country so to speak and spoke funny. We were city kids and just didn't know. His father was from Carolina and sold in to slavery to Mississippi. It's amazing how we think progression from something is progress. It's in fact forgetting our culture and heritage. Now I know better, and some phrases I still use because I heard it growing up. I feel so proud of my ancestors and my heritage!
I live in MS my grandparents spoke geechee. Now I know
Same thoughts here
Here in Texas, my grandmother's people had a praise house! Just recently my dad and I found out that his father was gullah. I feel like I've missed so much. People would ask my mom, "We're y'all from, the islands?" Now I understand. We have the intonation but no longer the language. Gotta do some ding 'bout dat!
And I really loved the Nick Jr. classic TV show Gullah Gullah Island.
I envy his delivery of his words. So eloquent. I wish I could speak that way. So natural in front of a crowd.
Wow... I'm also from Charleston and went to Hampton University. I can truly identify with this whole talk
I enjoyed this presentation and the reminder never to throw away the culture you were raised in, no matter where you go.
I remember moving to Atlanta, GA and everybody kept saying i was from Jamaica.
843 Gullah Newz Yeah, I would get asked that too.
Had that happen to, been asked if I was from NOLA too. No we don't sound the same and the language is different. Now if they said Charleston, I woulda said you close but I from Georgia
@@mayaj291 Yeah, I don't think New Orleans sound anything like Charleston... except for maybe the way they pronounce "three" as "tree." "All tree of y'all." 😂😂😂
Yaasss, and benya benya polliwog.... I LOVE GEECHE/GULLAH.... The language and entire culture give me joy.... I'm from SC and I've only been to Charleston once for work. I am definitely gonna for the culture. My dad's family come from there, but I don't know them. In my heart and soul, I know that this is my culture. I often wander what my life would be like if my grandma never left Charleston.
Christina Holmes you should check and then find out if your people own any property.
sound just like me im embracing💕💕 my gulla geechee culture full force. my dad family is from charleston Mt. pleasant SC there also but i dont know them.
This was so beautiful. This man still captivates me after all these years. The pride of my culture and skin to this day some of that can be attributed to he and his wife. As a child you where unique on my screen and welcomed in a house hold where I had the Caribbean father and that made me different. Thank you man I wish I could meet and talk with Ron someday and just tell him all that he means.
I could listen to his melodic voice for HOURS!
I want to hear more💥 Greetings to Gullah Geechee from Suriname! I am in the process of recovering Sranang Tongu a varation of Patois spoken by all diasporans across the world. My parents didn't teach us bc they wanted us to assimilate into dutch culture and have no accent. I'm so sad and dissapointed they never taught us. Today I feel they were ashamed.
Ron and his wife performed and told Gullah stories at our Jones family reunion July 2014 in Charleston South Carolina
Be proud fa we people
I am from Michigan and manage a team in Charleston that are natives of the area. I often struggle to understand them but I truly celebrate every time I correctly translate their language. Being a foreigner to this area, I had to realize it is I that have an accent, not them. I am determined to learn more about the culture and communicate with my team accordingly.
I'm gonna take a trip to Charleston, SC Mt. Pleasant to be exact have falling in love with this lango, culture, and accent. When they said we was speaking Ebonics it was just our ancestors language We sound west Indian mix with Creole. I'm super excited and curious to learn more about my Grandmother roots. I'm also gonna see if I can find any family in SC. This is gonna be super exciting. I'm Gulla Geechee.💯❤
Its so beautiful that their culture survived all that, love it.
Gullah is 90% the same with Sierra Leone Krio.
The gullahs are from Sierra Leone.
Alusine Barrie yes, Sierra Leone and many many other west African countries
Bahamians like myself can understand and speak Gullah geechee very easily in fact most of the old Booky and Ber Rabbit stories were told to us as kids. Amazing! I always knew that in parts of the coastal Carolinas and North Florida spoke like Bahamians but only found out about the term Gullah after researching Chief Justice Clarence Thomas and why he spoke so little during deliberations with the other justices.
You should look up how related Bahamians and Gullah people are
Being from Charleston I know exactly what he is saying and felt the exact same way! Omg! It’s crazy how people make a dialect from your rich culture to make you feel inadequate. A lot of us have similar stories from when we leave home. I couldn’t stand it but now I embrace it as we are more connected to our African ancestors than most.
He has that Vincentian intonation. It’s so musical
If we all spoke with the musicality that he is using now, the general level of joy bubbling up would make the world a much happier place.
Tenki...appreciate you.
Geechee in the north
day clean can be translated as we say in Ga (a Ghanaian language) "jen echele".. meaning day has cleared
Did you read that somewhere?
I'm from the Ga tribe
Cephas Laryea do some use it as a new day as well
Ete sein? Do GA use that? Is Ga akan?
Kiki Learns Languages Ga is not Akan. It's part of another larger umbrella called Ga-Dangme. made up of Ga, Ada and krobo.
Speak, ... speak brother! I'm from McClellanville, a small fishing town of Charleston, SC. Your lecture resonated with me quite a bit in being from the area. I was also once ashamed of how I spoke. But not anymore. Great message brother!!
He's an amazing storyteller, I was captivated by his passion and enthusiasm!
Supreme...encore Mr, Daise! Honor & praise to all my ancestors. I'm grateful & more inspired.
Tenki Tenki for this lecture❤️🙏🏾
I really want to learn this language ..my language... im just finding that my grandfather was rooted in Gullah and I really want to be able to write the language and speak it. I have started to claim english as a second language.
Bezal-El LaGrone Jr. Artist MY GRANDMOTHER AS WELL.
Tanki Tanki ... E hoonah have a flag an dhem dhere things!
There's a book called Gullah Language
Come on down to the Lowcountry!!! You can't learn it from a book... you have to be among the people!
BRENDA J. PEART yea
Excellent. I miss hearing this language. Thanks for teaching the culture.
Sound just like us in The Bahamas, wow!!
Lyndale Pinder that’s because we all do come from the same continent originally. But also cuz South Carolina and the Bahamas did A LOT of trading amongst each other.
Martin Smith Correct.
Yes English loyalist moved to the Bahamas. Gullah moved around the Americas.
Sierra Leone is the root. The captives were brought from there to the Caribbean and Southeastern coast of the US, mainly North Florida, Georgia, and the Carolinas
YES !!!!!! YES !!!!!!✊🏾✊🏾✊🏾
I love listening to him talk he is such a wonderful human with such joyful energy even talking about somber topics his energy is so enjoyable
This is so interesting... My background is Jamaican and clearly I don't know enough about my culture!!!
Yes I... because of this background Im able to live here in the Lowcountry.. it being like Jamaica was the reason for me to move here.
@@msbjpeart Welcome, sis
this speech resonated with me because when I was a child, my father was told by my teacher that she couldn't understand my words. I am Hawaiian Japanese and there were words we used at home that I simply didn't know the alternative English words for.. so I stopped talking for many years not understanding the difference between Japanese, pidgin, and real English
I am so sorry to hear about your experience. Mahalo nui loa for sharing your story! I found the beginning "d" replacement in English "th" words to be similar to Hawaiian Pidgin.
I used to be ashamed of my Gullah Geechee culture. My mom sent me to majority white schools and they would tease me on the way pronounce certain words/shorten words. So I began to talk like them. As I’ve gotten older, I’ve embraced my culture. I will no longer be ashamed. In with that said, We binya 👊🏿 Y’all boi be gud. Love from Chucktown 🖤🔥
I remember seeing him at the store and little kids would love seeing him!!
I grew up watching Gullah Gullah Island and his voice is as melodious and eloquent as ever. I can listen to him talk all day.
My dad and grandpa is in Florida now and my grandmother is Gullah Geechi 🥰💫💌🙌
I love Ron Daise (Ronald Daise) talking about the Gullah Geechee
I remember this guy as kid. Very interesting and educational
I’m just finding out my roots are Gullah Geechee. I grew up in Baltimore and always was asked where am I’m from why I talk so fast . I would say my family from South and North Carolina. It all makes sense now . Im ready to learn and represent 💪🏿👑 ✨💪🏿
I'm from Charleston...I've got plenty of people in Baltimore... do you know any Allens?
@@KtotheG Watson, Brown, Davis , Hartwell , Walker that I know of
@@sirprentisswatson2020 Oh ok.. none of those names are familiar... I've got people from Miami, FL to Buffalo, NY... all on the East Coast... a few in Texas, but that's it.
"My culture too is different from other cultures in Charleston and throughout America, but it is meaningful and significant. That's what I mean when I say Gullah/Geechee means a lot. The layers of my culture; language, music, beliefs, crafts, food way are more closely aligned with West Africa heritage more than the cultures of any other Africa American population." Love this! My children are half Nigerian on their dad's side. They are the first generation of Nigerians to be born in the USA in their father's family, so they have that culture and heritage. On my side we are "African-American", but after doing my research and sharing information with other relatives I uncovered that we are actually "American Indians" from the Pamunkey and Mattaponi tribes. My Ancestors did not come here from Africa, at least none that I have found so far. Your culture most certainly stands out among others in the "African American" community as being directly related to people and places in West Africa, and it's engrained in the things you mention such as the food, which a big one, the basket weaving, etc. None of us has a blanket history, but among tribes and distinguishable groups we have common history, your's being Gullah/Geechee. I respect the rich heritage and the preservation of all cultures, and I appreciate you sharing your pride and respect for your own. We all (African-Americans) have to do our genealogy and talk to our elders to get the truth of exactly who we are.
It's amazing how there're so many different ways to say one thing.
Thank you for this! I’ve been reaching my Charleston Ancestors and oh what I’ve learned! I’m sooo proud! And plan on doing more to educate myself and family!
Kooraaaaay Day! This brings me back to living in BFT. I still remember bagging Ron’s groceries at Publix... 20 years ago OMG 😮
It has been recognized by scholars that " there is one dialect of black english still spoken on the Georgia coast called Gullah which is still spoken there by 20000 people. it is thought to represent the closest thing to original English Creole ... "
Kevin Ockleberry El I feel like learning to increase that number.
Dani Simone Singerman right💯
South Carolina sea islands and low country…
Such a great speech. When I was a kid I loved Gullah Gullah Island. I've always wanted to go there
I remember when my grandmother told me that she went to high school with him. Majority of the people that were stars and guest stars on the show Gullah Gullah Island lived on St. Helena Island, so my family knew them!
I love the grandmother
I think the Geechee dialect (actually now I know it's a language) is the coolest ever. I had a few friends from when I lived in Charleston that speak it. I am sad that he was discriminated against based on it :( thank you for this interesting video
As someone who has been interested in Hawaiian culture for some time now, I can say that it actually reminds me a lot of Pidgin!
Bobo - boy in Sierra Leone Krio. Day don clean - dawn in Sierra Leone Krio and mi don don - I have finished it is also Sierra Leone Krio.
Gullah Gullah was my favorite show growing up
My hometown is Georgetown, SC and Im so glad my family taught me about my Gullah Geechee culture! I'm so proud❤❤
Beautiful thank you brother. 🙏💚
Hey, I recall him and loved the show.
My mom's family is Gullah and this show was biiig in our house 🧡
I love that for him, language is music, a conversation a song
My dad's side of the family speaks geechee, they are from Louisiana. They sound just like this.
@Right Cha, Lafayette. An my dad was born in Beaumont, Tx I have quite a bit of family there still
Right Cha Wow, this is first time I’ve heard that we share an exact word (“yah”). We are really twin cultures. Over here in SC, we retain (or did retain) the French pronunciation of some words and names. There was a type of torch we called the _flambeau_ and a boat that is still called a _bateau._ Famously, Charlamagne tha God’s real first name Leonard is not /LEH nerd/ but /leh NARD/ (I was in my 20s before I knew the first way was “the right way”). Wonder what else we have in common?
Right Cha Wow, just wow! One of y’all could drop right down in the Low Country and pass for Geechee, lol! How exactly did this happen, I wonder?
Very similar
@Bougie Barb Perhaps, albeit we were always a people migrating "the people's" are from the same lineage so you'll find a lot of similarities. Our ancestors "many of them" are decendants of the Angola/Geezie people[not sure if I spelled that correctly] . YahAbe [Father YAH] hidden us in plain sight, we are of the chosen seedline of Judah. In fact if you research the culture food/language of those in the Motherland still you see all the similarities & if you visited their they'smd ask you what country are you from🤣. Remember the Father said their is power of Life & Death in the tongue "Tongue= can translate to language/culture" which we've been stripped off. But listening to him reminded me of my youth. We are a beautiful blended people an I believe soon we'll understand it all better by-and by.
Interesting. So that’s why we like rice so much and I’m from MS.
Mr P Chances are many of your ancestors were marched from here to there in the 1800s. In a very real way, Mississippi is all of us.
TommyStrategic yup! And a lot of our ancestors were taken to America for rice harvesting cuz they had prior knowledge of rice back in Africa
I'm from MS..i luv me sum rice and eggs
..
@@tanarich5515 That's how we do it in Charleston, too... you ever have sardines and rice or red rice and sausage?
@@KtotheG My cousin taught me how to cook those dishes when l was 12 years old in 1972. My sister and l would spend the entire summer with them in Murrels lnlet, SC. I didn't go back home to NJ until the day before school started. I loved it there! Everyone grew up and moved away. I mean all of the young people left.
I loved this.
THANK YOU!
found my way to this talk due to being a big fan of the opera Porgy & Bess and trying to find out more about the real-life Gullah peoples of SC the characters & setting are based on. never knew before today Gullah Geechee was considered an entire language unto itself, and i'm fascinated to find out more about it now. such an interesting culture & an amazing example in history of cultural memory & traditions surviving even the most extreme uprooting. i especially loved the point that just because someone pronounces words like "that" as "dat" has no bearing on their intelligence- that's an important message for many folks in the USA especially to hear. great info & super engaging storytelling style from Ron!
Gullah is the culture... Geechee is the language..
Hotep,Blessings I love it .
I WILL embrace my roots ❤️👑🌴
Love him. 💗💗💗💗
I love it!!!
Well done. 🙏🏾
This was a pretty decent presentation. Kind of "standard". But for the setting in which it was told, it's cool. I grew up in Augusta, GA and was born in Beaufort, SC. Even all the way inland to Augusta, the impact of the Gullah-Geechee culture are felt. The ways we eat, the way we speak, especially out in places further out in Richmond County. Places like Hephzibah, Blythe, Goshen and on over to Burke County. My grandfather on my Dad's side was from Edgefield, SC and my great-grandmother, her parents and theirs as well from my mothers side were from Georgetown, SC. So, we grew up hearing and speaking certain words of the Gullah language or as some may just say, dialect. Certain foods we ate and some we still eat, such as Fish & Grits, Frogmore Stew or what folk may call "Low Country Boil", Okra stew, Coota Soup(my dads mother loved it) and so much more. Even now as I get older and have my own children, things like agricultural practices, trapping and even us being beekeepers for a while now, are valued so much more. I'm married into a Bajan family or family of Barbados. So much of my mother-in-laws culture and language reminds me of my family, because its so similar, some of it damn near identical. Our 4 children are in a unique/blessed position!
Very true, i am from Augusta GA ✊🏾
Dope video
Hearing him speak makes me truly miss my grandparents
So awesome!
Omg I remember him from Gullah Gullah island show. Wow omg
Great story about our nation's diverse culture. Don's ACES.
Y'all boi need da come ya
We comin family 😭❤
My last name is white maybe we're related lol
This guy is a great orator
Omg I relate to what he said about the way he talks so much. A lot of people from where I’m from don’t understand the way I form sentences and say I have an accent and I have a hard time with English but it’s the only language I know. I don’t know where it comes from though
It comes from Sierra Leone in West Africa. The language there is Krio, which is very similar to Geechee.
ME 3 !!! SHELDON , PAIGES POINTE AND BURTON , POSSUM HILL . BEAUFORT COUNTY SC!!
6:55 refrence to " amazing grace" is sooo deep!
Right? That part always gets me!
Excellent presentation- wonderful- Amen!
Me thinking the whole time: Where's Binya Binya, Ron? Where's the frog? Go get the frog!
We love you Mr. Ron
We GeeCheeKingz
My wife is there right now with her friend I’m mad 😠 I missed out . She asked me about the trip they were taking I told her that is where the Geechee ‘s are…..
OK it is time that I plan a trip to the SE coast.
Love It 😘😘😘
When my mom first moved to VA.
From South Carolina, everyone would ask.
If she was from Panama. My Grandma spoke in broken english, all the time. I can pick it up .. if I listen closely. When I visited in the summer. They knew I was from out of town. From my speech, which would change up. The longer I stayed. I was born in Charleston, however we lived there off and on. I have fond memories of my time down there. The food weather and people top notch
If you listen to the speech of Bahamian people,from the bahamas compared to gullah geechie speech , you'd be surprised