American Routes Shortcuts: The Gullah Geechee Ring Shouters

Published January 17, 2025 at 4:00 AM CST

The Gullah Geechee people are descendants of those enslaved in the Sea Islands of Florida, North Carolina, Georgia and South Carolina. Because of the remoteness of the plantations, the Gullah Geechee were able to retain some of their African traditions, including the ring shout. It’s a ritual in which participants move counterclockwise in a circle while shuffling and stomping their feet and clapping their hands, in call and response fashion. The tradition is rooted in West African culture, mixed with elements of Christianity. The Gullah Geechee Ring Shouters from Darien, Georgia have preserved this ancestral heritage through performance and education since 1980. They joined us on stage at the New Orleans Jazz Museum where they started with a song you will probably recognize, that came from the Gullah Geechee culture.

Kum Ba Yah/Come By Here Gullah Geechee Ring Shouters
American Routes Original Recording

Nick Spitzer: The Gullah Geechee Shouters, how about that? Beautiful. We're going to talk just a little bit for a moment. In radio, we call this chin music, and I'm going to go with age before beauty, if that’s okay.

Joann Walltower Ross: Sure.

NS: [laughing] You like that Jack, it’s okay?

Jack Evans: That’s fine!

NS: All right, so they say that you're the oldest shouter out here.

JE: 25!

NS: [laughs] Oh yeah, yeah. How did you come into the tradition?

JE: Well, I started out about ten years old in another group. We used to go out at night, leave home, early part of the night, and we go–we always go Christmas Eve. And we go to church, and we get in there all night long. We shout, eat hot dogs, something the like. And we shout ’til the daylight come, and after daylight come, I'd go home or wait up. But I ever did like the shouting. And so, from then on, I was just shouting, and I started beating the stick, I guess, when I was right around about fifteen, something like that.

NS: People call it Watch Night.

JE: Watch Night, right.

NS: So they're watching for the word, you know, from Lincoln onward to freedom.

JE: Yes, uh huh, yes.

NS: So you're there during the Christmas holiday, which is about the beginnings of Christianity, but you're also thinking about life on Earth and getting out of slavery.

JE: Right, right.

NS: Now, how did you become the stick man?

JE: Well, back in them, I started with my brother and my uncles and the rest of the group, and I just was a little just beating the stick, you know, ’til I grew up, started beating to get the sound of it, and I started beating then and still beating.

NS: Yeah.

JE: Enjoy it.

NS: Thank you for still beating that stick, man. Yeah, you keep them rolling.

JE: Oh yeah.

NS: Yeah, that's good. That's good. Let's give them a round of applause here. [applause] Jack Evans, look at that. He’s the oldest shouter on the stage. What should we go out on, ladies and gentlemen?

Oh Freedom Gullah Geechee Ring Shouters
American Routes Original Recording

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