Painting of a blank-faced blue woman and man in farming attire. White and navy-blue title at top; white author name in navy blue text box at bottom. Painting of a blank-faced blue woman and man in farming attire. White and navy-blue title at top; white author name in navy blue text box at bottom. Painting of a blank-faced blue woman and man in farming attire. White and navy-blue title at top; white author name in navy blue text box at bottom.

Size: 6 x 9
Pages: 216
Illustrations: 13 b&w halftones

African American Studies
 paperback
 ebook
 hardcover
 New & Noteworthy
 Books
 South Carolina History & Culture

Gullah-Geechee Diasporas

Knowledge, Culture, and Black Lowcountry Legacies

edited by Muhammad Fraser-Rahim and Elizabeth J. West

Paperback
978-1-64336-639-5
Published: Jul 9 2026

$29.99

Hardcover
978-1-64336-545-9
 Published: Jul 9 2026

$114.99

Spiral Bound

 Published:

Ebook
978-1-64336-640-1
 Published: Jul 9 2026

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OA Ebook
978-1-64336-640-1
 Published: Jul 9 2026

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The inclusion of this book in the Open Carolina collection is made possible by the generous funding of

Mapping the Gullah-Geechee diaspora across time and space

Gullah-Geechee Diasporas counters romantic portrayals of Gullah-Geechee culture as a static, geographically isolated remnant of the past. Across eight interdisciplinary essays, the book's contributors trace an arc, described in time and space, from pre-Middle Passage Africa through the Caribbean and coastal United States into the interior South and beyond. They consider how Gullah-Geechee cultural traditions are simultaneously rooted in the physical Lowcountry homeland and represent a dynamic cultural ethos that is not bounded by geography and has shaped Black life across North America and the Caribbean Basin. Together, these essays reveal the resilience and adaptability of people whose history defies myths of isolation and immobility. Gullah-Geechee Diasporas is a fresh framework for understanding African American cultural origins, migrations, and transformations.



Read an interview with the editors in The Guardian.

Muhammad Fraser-Rahim is associate professor of Intelligence and Security Studies at The Citadel. He is the author of America's Other Muslims and Gullah Geechee Muslims in America.

Elizabeth J. West is professor of English and the John B. and Elena Diaz-Verson Amos Distinguished Chair in English Letters at Georgia State University. Her books include Finding Francis and African Spirituality in Black Women's Fiction.

"At this moment of heightened attention towards African Diasporas, which are frequently delineated by the nature and timing of dispersal (forced or voluntary; pre-modern or modern), Gullah-Geechee Diasporas deepens our understanding of the processes of diasporization, unbounded by space and time, through social and cultural evolution and transmission that connects the past and present and reaches far beyond the Lowcountry."—Krista Johnson, Howard University, Director of the Center for African Studies

"Even before the US civil war, Gullah influences were seen in places such as Mississippi, Texas and the Caribbean, showing that the Gullah Geechee didn't remain remote, but rather migrated throughout the country, leaving evidence of their presence in their new homes. A new book, Gullah-Geechee Diasporas: Knowledge, Culture, and Black Lowcountry Legacies aims to highlight this impact through eight essays by pre-eminent scholars and historians. Edited by Muhammad Fraser-Rahim and Elizabeth J West, the text crafts a wider understanding of Gullah Geechee life and influence, through language, music and religion."—Adria Walker, The Guardian