Blog 11: Music culture of the Gullah

The Gullah culture originated from African slaves of the “Rice Coast” region who were brought over for their knowledge of working in rice fields. Due to their African descent their music culture shares some similarities with other music cultures native to the area. However it should also be noted that their culture has adopted some of the local customs into their culture.

Examples of their African descent can be seen in the reliance of drums during their music creation. Also these drums seem similar to the talking drums seen in our previous cultures. Another thing to note is the audience participation such as the random individuals coming out to dance (which reflects the African culture we viewed earlier where a possessed one would come out and dance).

On the other hand one can see the influences of Western ideas in their music culture by looking at culture that emerges from their beliefs such as ring shouting. While ring shouting had gone out of practice it can still serve as an example on how a native African custom (the forming of a ring and dancing around to drum beats) has been combined with an Western ideal (in this case Christianity).

So while the music culture of the Gullah is heavily influenced by their African roots, as seen by their use of instruments and the amount of audience participation, it should also be noted that there has been some Western influence within their culture.