After Africa | Part One – Food
September 10, 2024
The Food So, it’s been a few weeks since I returned from Africa, and of
African American Culture
Finding Your Roots – Part 1
September 4, 2024
Want to find your roots? Listen in on why it’s a valuable and important journey to start.
My New African Name!! Nana Nyarkoa
August 25, 2024
While in Ghana, one of the local kings gave me a new African name during a naming ceremony.
In A Word | Ghana
August 25, 2024
By Luana M. Graves Sellars African Name – Nana Nyarkoa Well, it’s August 15th and
Gullah Geechee Strength, Perseverance and Resilience
September 6, 2023
When we think about slavery, we don’t usually consider the day to day or the gory details. The general knowledge of captivity, hard labor and cruelty are the basics, but for the most part, the actual experience that enslaved people went through are forgotten. Slavery inflicted generational trauma in so many different ways; fear, uncertainty, humiliation and mental and physical stressors.
The History and Traditions Behind Gullah Foodways
July 31, 2023
Gullah Geechee foodways is one of the oldest practices and traditions that’s still being practiced in America today. At its foundation, slavery and the foodways are deeply rooted in cultural West African ancestral ties, as well as adaptability, creativity and circumstance. The meals were and still are designed to be hearty and provide the necessary sustenance and strength to get one through an arduous and physical day.
The Lowcountry Story of Rice
June 24, 2023
By Luana M. Graves Sellars Enslaved women on a rice barge in Georgetown, SC Any
First Families of Hilton Head | The Singletons
March 25, 2023
These days, when we think of major developers, we think of the corporations that developed massive communities like Sea Pines, Hilton Head Plantation and Indigo Run, but the Singleton family deserves credit as a major developer as well. Not only did the Singletons play a significant role in shaping island history and “pulled themselves up by their bootstraps,” they created opportunities for the economic growth and prosperity of their neighbors.
The Slave Preacher | Reverend Murchison
November 25, 2022
As the first Mayor of the Historic Town of Mitchelville, the first Black Mayor in the United States and the first pastor of Hilton Head Island’s oldest church, , Reverend Murchison, an escaped slave from Savannah, was also a significant influence on the Civil War effort and countless generations of Gullah families. After establishing the First African Baptist Church in 1862 with 120 members, all of whom were contrabands, Reverend Murchison went on to baptize and marry 1,000’s of freedmen who lived on the island’s Historic Town of Mitchelville.
Seeking | The Gullah Religious Tradition
August 31, 2022
Joining the church, at one time, was an ancestral African tradition called seeking.
The practice was based in the thought that since God and the ancestors communicated through dreams, the interpretation of the dream, represented achieving spirituality.
