Visiting CCU Scholar to discuss Gullah, Sierra Leone
Opala is known for his research on the "Gullah Connection," the long historical thread that links the West African nation of Sierra Leone to the Gullah people of coastal South Carolina and Georgia. Opala has conducted significant historical, anthropological, and linguistic research over the past 40 years and has applied that research to re-establishing connections between families in Sierra Leone and Gullah communities. His work brings together peoples whose family relations were destroyed by the Atlantic slave trade centuries ago.
Opala organized three Gullah homecomings that took place in 1989, 1997 and 2005 in Sierra Leone; each established ties between families in local Gullah communities and those in Sierra Leone. The first visit involved Gullah community activists and leaders hosted by Sierra Leone's president on a state visit. The second homecoming involved a family connection rooted in a song, an ancient funeral hymn that had been passed down by families on both sides of the Atlantic for more than 200 years. The third visit, dubbed "Priscilla's Homecoming," was the culmination of a trail of documents over a span of 250 years that linked Thomalind Polite, a young Gullah woman in Georgia, to a slave girl named Priscilla who was taken from Sierra Leone to Charleston on the slave ship Hare in 1756.
"Opala was the first to make the connection between the rice coast of Africa and the Carolina rice culture," said Veronica Gerald, assistant professor of English and director of the Charles Joyner Institute for Gullah and African Diaspora Studies at CCU. "There were linguistic connections between the areas already, but his study pulled all the strands together to make the Gullah-Sierra Leone connection."
Opala is the first scholar-in-residence of CCU's Joyner Institute. During the month of November, Opala will teach classes at CCU in the fields of anthropology and history, participate in Gullah community events and work with students and faculty within the Joyner Institute.
Established in 2016, the Joyner Institute examines the historical migration and scattering of African populations to local geographical areas and the subsequent evolution of blended cultures, specifically Gullah.
"We are honored to have Opala as our first scholar-in-residence, and we'll be learning from his strengths in many ways," said Gerald.
The lecture is part of the "Passages: A Global Perspective" lecture series sponsored by CCU's Thomas W. and Robin W. Edwards College of Humanities and Fine Arts.
A coffee social will precede the lecture, beginning at 9:30 a.m. CCU's Myrtle Beach Education Center is located at 900 79th Ave. N.
For more information on the event, contact Gerald at 843-349-2429 or vgerald@coastal.edu.