Attendees of the 2023 National Camp and Retreat Leaders Gathering at Epworth by the Sea will be treated to a cultural-historical experience featuring the Geechee Gullah Ring Shouters. 

Who are the Gullah?

Gullah, also called Sea Island Creole, developed among enslaved people from Central and West Africa brought to the eastern barrier islands of North America who incorporated features of local culture into their traditions.

Who are the Geechee Gullah Ring Shouters?

This cultural performance group, based in the heart of the Gullah Geechee community, was organized in 1992 with the overall goal of preserving and protecting their priceless ancestral heritage. Manager Griffin Lotson has traced his ancestral roots prior to slavery to Africa. As expressed by Gullah scholar and linguist Dr. Lorenzo Dow Turner, the group believes that people without a history are a lost generation.

The Shouters are committed to embracing, preserving, and protecting the historical and cultural heritage of the Gullah Geechee legacy through history, song and dance for the benefit of present and future generations. The Shouters' cultural goal is to keep the original "shout" as authentic from 1800 to the present. The group boasts the oldest active Ring Shouter performing in the world; a direct descendant from slavery.  

The Ring Shout

The Ring Shout is probably the oldest surviving African American performance tradition on the North American continent. This compelling fusion of counterclockwise dance-like movement, call-and-response singing, percussion of hand clapping and the stick beating of a drum-like rhythm on a wooden floor is clearly African in its origins. The ring shout, originally and presently, affirms oneness with the Spirit and ancestors as well as community cohesiveness. The practice continued into the twentieth century with its influence resonating in other musical forms from spiritual to jubilee to gospel music to jazz. However, by the last quarter of the twentieth century, the ring shout tradition appeared to have died out. The Geechee Gullah Shouters have helped to revive and preserve the tradition into the present day. 

View a Ring Shout performance