Books reveal more about Gullah culture

By Tess Malijenovsky
Just because February is over, doesn’t mean you have to wait a year to keep learning and celebrating the African American history of the area. Try picking up one of these books by local authors Carl Linke and Wilbur Cross.
“Haint Blue,” a novel by Carl Linke, has a character named Kip Drummond, an inexperienced businessman, who struggles with the choice between doing what’s right and doing what’s needed to survive. As you fall into the plot of corporate greed versus Gullah tradition over a waterfront building’s fate, you’ll fall in love with Linke’s language as he weaves the sites and sounds of Beaufort by name into the of color his novel.
“Gullah Culture in America,” by Wilbur Cross, explores the moving journey of 20th and 21st century Gullahs reconnecting with their roots in West Africa. “Gullah Culture in America” reveals an extensive record of African American descendants of slaves in South Carolina and Georgia whose communities predate the American Revolution.
Try picking up either of these novels at your local bookstore.