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Education Through Celebration!
The Rice Coast of Western Africa
![Rice Coast Africa.jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3088a0_3001609f64c643cd9a22a2a930543787~mv2.jpg/v1/fill/w_404,h_345,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/Rice%20Coast%20Africa.jpg)
Rice-growing Areas of the American South
![Rice Areas.jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3088a0_2a76f74375154445a709f347a822d15f~mv2.jpg/v1/crop/x_0,y_0,w_599,h_512/fill/w_394,h_334,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_auto/Rice%20Areas.jpg)
The Gullah Geechee Heritage Corridor
![Gullah Geechee Corridor.jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/3088a0_a964d174fc43400985645bbf200b1918~mv2.jpg/v1/crop/x_0,y_2,w_641,h_555/fill/w_98,h_85,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,blur_2,enc_auto/Gullah%20Geechee%20Corridor.jpg)
The Gullah Geechee Connection
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Enslaved Africans knowledgeable in rice farming were brought to SC, southeastern NC, GA, and northeastern FL.
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From the 18th through 19th centuries, plantation owners in the Caribbean and coastal areas of the American South purchased slaves from various parts of Africa.
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They greatly preferred slaves from the “Rice Coast” or “Windward Coast”—the traditional rice-growing regions of West Africa stretching from Senegal down to Sierra Leone and Liberia, where a distinct species of rice (Oryza glaberrima) has been cultivated for at least 3,000 years.
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Most of the enslaved were shipped from Bunce Island in Sierra Leone to the Caribbean islands and the port of Charleston, SC.
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The primary tribal groups among the enslaved were the Mende, Vai, and Fula (Fulani or Fulbe).
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Many maintained their native languages and cultural practices through music, dance, basket-weaving, attire, and food.
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The American descendants of those Africans—the Gullah Geechee people of the lower Atlantic coast and Sea Islands—created a unique culture, with deep African retentions, evident in the persistence of their distinctive arts, crafts, foodways, music, and language.
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After the abolition of slavery, the Gullah Geechee settled in remote villages along the southern coastal swath, where, thanks to their relative isolation, they formed strong communal ties and a unique culture that has endured for centuries.
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View the Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor's
2020 Report HERE