Doing the Ring Shout in Georgia, ca. 1930s Members of the Gullah community express their spirituality through the “ring shout” during a service at a local “praise house.” Courtesy of Lorenzo Dow Turner Papers, Anacostia Community Museum Archives, Smithsonian Institution
On a long stretch of remote islands that extend from the northern tip of South Carolina to just past the Florida border lives the majority of Gullah people. This unique African-American subculture, whose lineage traces back to the slave trade, has long been defined by their peculiar language, which was shrouded in mystery for many years.
“Word, Shout, Song,” a new exhibit that opened Mon., Aug. 9, at the Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum, in Southeast, is a tribute to linguist Lorenzo Dow Turner, whose life’s work exposed the secrets of the Gullah dialect which was hidden beneath several generations of slavery.
Lorenzo Down Turner
The exhibit is also a celebration of the Gullah people who continue to thrive, despite years of oppression. “They are very proud of their culture,” said Alcione Amos, curator of the Smithsonian Anacostia Community Museum, who continues to study the culture.
Gullah dialect, which sounded silly to most people outside of the Sea Islands, became Turner’s obsession when he first heard it in 1929 at South Carolina State College at Orangeburg. Statements such as “All a we hab cajun fuh meet um,” which means, “We are glad to meet you,” would baffle visitors who traveled to the Southeastern coastal regions of the United States.
By 1930, Turner was well on his way to making a brilliant connection: Gullah was a mixture of more than 21 native African languages combined with English and was not “baby talk” or bad English like many of his contemporaries dismissed it as being.
Until his death in 1972, Turner, a fourth generation free African-American, was a pioneer in the study of what would later be defined as Creole languages (an amalgamation of African and English dialects).
Turner, a dedicated academic, first earned a Bachelor’s degree from Howard University in 1914, went on to get a Masters from Harvard University in 1917, and continued, to become one of the first 40 African-Americans to receive a doctorate, at the University of Chicago in 1926. The “Word, Shout, Song” exhibit, which will be on display until March 27, documents Turner’s adventures in his quest to legitimize the language and culture of the African Diaspora, a brave expedition that took him all over the world.
Musical instruments, audio recording devices, photos, costumes, and crafts are just some of the artifacts that are on display as part of this unique collection, which is composed almost entirely from 35 boxes donated to the museum by Turner’s widow, Lois Turner Williams.
Read more on the Smithsonian Gullah Exhibit >
Read more about Lorenzo Dow Turner >
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