So what is this Gullah anyway?

Don't know if you have had a chance to get into reading this month's book The Mermaid Chair, but the setting is on a fictious South Carolina island called Egret. Egret Island, a barrier island is also a gullah island. I asked Erica if she happened to know what gullah was and when she said no, the old Literature teacher in me kicked in making sure she knew the context for the story.

I hope you will humor me by letting me share a few internet links about gullah. (By the way, if you haven't started the story, this is no way is a spoiler. The story talks a lot about gullah, but it isn't pivitol to the plot.)

I won't go into a long explanation, and these links aren't academic in nature. If you have the right sound hook up on your computer, you can hear what gullah sounds like too:
http://www.bcgov.net/bftlib/gullah.htm
http://www.pbs.org/now/arts/greenessay.html
http://www.knowitall.org/gullahnet/gullah/index.html

If you have time and are looking for more about the gullah culture, a movie Daughters of the Dust came out a couple of years ago. Either I saw it or meant to see it - can't remember. But it is all about the gullah culture on the Carolina barrier islands.

Happy reading - Jen