Follow the Drinking Gourd

“Historical Study Tour of Sierra Leone” (#2 of 9)

Fellow tour participants were Gullah Geechee people from coastal South Carolina and Georgia and others from different states. All were involved in longstanding cultural and historical preservation. 

Efforts were geared toward learning more about the origins of Gullah Geechee culture as found in Sierra Leonean culture and history and sharing information about Gullah Geechee culture and history with Sierra Leoneans. The themes were:  Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition.

Slavery – The trip commenced with a journey to Bunce Island to tour the ruins of the Bunce Island Slave Castle and Prison.  From this site, most Africans departed their homeland en route to plantations in the Carolina and Georgia Colonies, primarily because of their expertise in rice production.

Bunce-Island-Sign.jpg

A personal highlight included informing the tour coordinator and participants about the significance of Georgetown County, SC as paramount to the production of rice in this country’s history and, subsequently, as being a location where a large percentage of Rice Coast Africans were enslaved. Another highlight was sharing songs that I created during and following my 2005 trip to Sierra Leone with Sierra Leoneans and tour participants on Sierra Leonean soil.  This repertoire began while standing to the rear of the Bunce Island Castle ruins, while overlooking the Male prison yard and singing “Tears an Horra.”  The song is sung to the tune of the Gullah spiritual “Trouble Will Be Ova,” which originated as enslaved Africans saw the bursts of firearms and heard the boom of cannons during the Civil War.  The lyrics to the chorus are:

Tears an horra at Bunce Island

Tears an horra at Bunce Island

Africans on slave ships last saw their homeland

When they left from Bunce Island

At the song’s conclusion, a hushed stillness permeated the grounds.  Several wiped tears from their eyes. Some informed me the song afforded them a clearer understanding of what their ancestors had endured.  At least one participant said ancestral voices soon afterward began speaking to him, telling him that the project he had in development would be effective and successful, even though he may have had doubts about it.

I felt like the Drinking Gourd: the constellation runaway slaves used to navigate their journeys to freedom.  The song and performance, indeed, were leading some to a sense of intellectual, emotional, and soul-cleansing freedom: providing clarity in understanding, depth in perceiving, and assurance in how to inform others.

Daise Fam at Bunce Island.JPEG