Many years ago I visited the US Southern state of South Carolina. I was fortunate to spend time vacationing in the state’s capital – Charleston – and also on Kiawah Island. The latter is known for golf, beautiful vistas, and waterways on which I kayaked. I went because I wanted to learn more about the Gullah Geechee people. Despite rapid tourism-linked development, the community that descended from slaves with its own distinct language and culture, still had a presence on the island.
At the time, I was a political science graduate student at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), where I was studying land rights in minority communities throughout the Americas. I wanted to understand how the Gullah Geechee were confronting threats to their land and culture.
Kiawah Island’s Gullah Geechee community is part of the broader Sea Islands that start in North Carolina and runs down to Florida; there are numerous Gullah Geechee along this stretch of the Atlantic. These communities descended from formerly enslaved West Africans who brought deep knowledge of tidal agriculture, rice, and coastal foraging that shaped the regions foodways. On Kiawah, this rich heritage is seen in language, crafts (basket-weaving and quilting immediately come to mind), language, and rice – ranging from seafood stews to one-pot rice dishes, and of course, the ongoing practice of coastal harvesting and the memory of rice cultivation techniques that survived the Middle Passage.
Coastal harvesting is for seafood such as crabs, oysters, and shrimp. Plants foraged include: sassafras (used in teas and as a thickener); benne (sesame) seed, which is turned into sweets or sprinkled on savoury dishes; scuppernong grapes (I remember seeing these!), which are eaten fresh and also preserved; and American elderberries, which are used for both preserves and syrups. Some Gullah Geechee families continue to cultivate small amounts of rice or heirloom varieties for cultural practice, public demonstrations, or seed-saving.
The food is special. hink shrimp and grits, which I absolutely love. (I do like to add a little cheese to my grits.) Or Hoppin’ John, which has been adopted across the US South. It is made with black-eyed peas (cultivated in West Africa and brought to the US South by enslaved people), rice, smoked pork, and aromatics. Seafood boils, she-crab soups, and okra stews that include shellfish are also part of the Gullah Geechee kitchen. In terms of preserves - fig, plum, and peach preserves seasoned with allspice and ginger show up as do pickled vegetables.
I hope to take a trip to a Gullah Geechee community to spend time taking cooking classes from local chefs and soaking up knowledge. I may try my hand at quilting!