BEAUFORT, S.C.
Research on Gullah culture is a little skimpy, according to one local professor, but he’s hoping to change all that through a class that explores the history of a culture that still lives through the singsong pidgin and practices on nearby St. Helena Island.
Professor J. Herman Blake is leading the first accredited university-level class on Gullah culture in the United States, offered at the University of South Carolina-Beaufort this semester.
The class stems from the university’s Sea Islands Institute, a center for research on the Sea Islands of South Carolina and Georgia founded by Blake in 2005 to promote study and preserve Gullah culture.
The weekly, three-hour class will count as three liberal arts credits.
Blake’s hope is to cultivate future Gullah scholars.
“I hope to work toward an understanding of the enduring values of the Gullah culture and promote scholarship,” says Blake.
Originally from New York, Blake has conducted research on Gullah people, particularly Daufuskie native-islanders, since 1967.
