Coastal Carolina University opens Gullah culture institute
CONWAY, S.C. (AP) — Coastal Carolina University is opening a new institute to study Gullah culture.
The Sun News reports (https://goo.gl/zFySmo ) that an inaugural ceremony was held on Friday for the Charles Joyner Institute of Gullah and African Diaspora Studies.
The institute's coordinator, Veronica Davis Gerald, said Gullah culture along South Carolina's coast and elsewhere has its roots in people from West Africa who were brought to the area to cultivate rice. She says Gullah culture goes back to the 1700s and continues to influence music and food of the region.
Gerald said that the institute is already offering a minor for students and will eventually offer a major.
She says students can learn from the Gullah population that's still in the area.
Also known as Geechee in Georgia and elsewhere, the Gullah culture once stretched along coastal areas from the Carolinas to Florida.