Joined in Shouting

There is a practice called ring shouting (see below) in the Gullah Geechee culture. Gullah Geechee was a culture of the runaway slaves that lived on the barrier islands and coasts off South Carolina and Georgia. These Africans were able to live their lives in isolation from the white world for the most part. Therefore, many say that the Gullah Geechee people are the closest to the West African culture from which they were stolen. Culture is never a fixed thing, it evolves and adapts to different environments. The Gullah Geechee have a unique dialect, religious practices, food, and many other things. But one of the ones I find most interesting is their ring shouts.
These are dances and songs that grew out of their isolation and the pain of being taken to a land where the people did not respect their humanity.  Many of the rhythms and dance steps are ghosts of West Africa where they and their ancestors once lived. These dances and songs (as all of Gullah Geechee culture) came close to being lost. As slavery and Jim Crow ended the children felt the pull as many did to the big urban centers. But a few tireless workers who knew the beautiful culture and its significance worked to maintain the culture.
The music came from contact with the Christian culture. But Christianity viewed through the eyes of slaves and their yearnings and hopes. It is believed that the ring shout was originally two art forms: the shout and ring play. The shout was a ‘call and response’ similar to African-American preachers of the nineteenth century and seen in many Black churches today. The dancing had to be religious in nature as it was thought to be of Satan. Adding to this challenge was that the steps could not resemble secular dancing like toe tapping, crossing of the legs, or fiddle playing. Thus over time the merging of the two art forms began to arise as an acceptable form of religious expression.
Drums were not allowed on plantations because the owners felt secret seditious messages might be communicated. This led to the enslaved African-Americans inventing new rhythm techniques which was called “hamboning” or “Juba Dance.”  They used foot stomping and hand slapping of the chest, legs, hands, cheeks, etc. to keep time and replicate their earlier forbidden drum rhythms.
“Shouting" men and women move in a circle in a counterclockwise direction, shuffling their feet, clapping, and often spontaneously singing or praying aloud. This was done usually around the church building itself but on occasion around the altar of the church.
It was thought that ring shouts were lost in the late twentieth century. But it was found still being practiced in 1983 at Mt. Calvary Baptist Church in Darien, a small coastal Georgia city about forty minutes south of Savannah. From this church would be formed a traveling group called the McIntosh County Shouters. It is a ten-member Gullah-Geechee group. They travel the United States with the "ring shout," introducing the music and movements to the world. It is not uncommon to hear groups practicing the ring shout at various events across the coastal islands of Georgia and South Carolina. Here in Savannah one of the places that celebrate the Gullah Geechee culture is The Pin Point Community and the Pin Point Heritage Museum. The Gullah Geechee have seen a revival and appreciation of a culture that has survived the Middle Passage, Slavery, and Jim Crow. And the children who once thought the culture too ‘country’ are now proud to have come from such a celebrated culture.
“May be the las’ time we shout together”
“May be the las’ time I don’t know”
“May be the las’ time we shout together”
“May be the las’ time I don’t know”
“I don’t know, I don’t know, may be the las’ time, I don’t know”
These words from a ring shout song can be answered ‘I do know, I do know, when will be the last time, I know not now’.
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