Gullah!

Hour-long Real Player perfromance from the Kennedy Center's Millenium Stage of the HALLELUJAH SINGERS

Marlena Smalls formed the Hallelujah Singers in 1990 to tell the story of the Gullah (AKA Geechee) culture through song and story. Since their creation the Hallelujah Singers have appeared in the motion picture "Forrest Gump" (with Marlena as Bubba's Mom), on Good Morning America, the Today Show, and around the world for many thousands of fans as well as heads of state.

A vocal group from Beaufort, (BYOO-fert) S. Carolina (in the Low Country) founded 10 years ago by Marlena Smalls, the Hallelujah Singers seek to preserve through music the Gullah heritage, rooted in West African traditions and language, and brought by the slaves to the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia. The Gullah language is Creole blend of West African and European dialects, developed in the isolated plantations of the coastal South. Most of the Gullah vocabulary is of English origin, but grammar and pronunciation come from a number of West African languages, such as Ewe, Madinka, Igbo, Twi and Yoruba. The slaves' knowledge of rice cultivation, a crop that had been grown in the West African region since 1500, made them desirable to the plantation owners of the South Carolina Low Country where rice had become a staple crop. The plantation owners, seeking the comforts of their city homes, often left the day-to-day operation of the plantations to the overseer or foreman, causing these isolated plantations to be much less influenced by Euro-American culture and allowing them to retain their "African-ness." It is these circumstances that resulted in the preservation of the Gullah culture.

Smalls developed and refined a series of concerts to define the Gullah culture and the "Sea Island sound." Her goal was to preserve the melodies and storytelling technique of the South Carolina Sea Islands. Interwoven with music and narration, the singers present miniature dramatizations of some of the unique personages, rituals, and ceremonies that played an important part in shaping the Gullah culture. Among the Hallelujah Singer's repertoire are traditional plantation songs dating back to the 1600s.

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