Sierra Leoneans and Gullahs have known about their family connection for more than 30 years, and people on both sides of the Atlantic are eager to learn more about it. This is what Fambul Tik (“Family Tree”), a Sierra Leonean cultural organization, will address when we lead an historic study tour of Sierra Leone in December, 2019. Our visitors will include Gullah people, Gullah performers, historians, historical preservationists, and cultural activists.

We call our tour: “The Sierra Leone-Gullah Connection: The Next Step.” 

The Gullah people (also called “Geechees”) are a unique group of African Americans who live in the coastal Low Country region of South Carolina and Georgia, where they have preserved more of their African cultural heritage than any other black community in the United States. The Gullahs are proud of their African heritage and, for their part, Sierra Leoneans have every reason to feel proud that an African American community closely related to them has preserved so much of its African cultural heritage, up to the present day.