Simplicity defines Lowcountry living. You find it everywhere, whether it’s evenings spent fly fishing for spot-tailed bass before the tide comes in or enjoying a bowl of lima beans and rice with pigtails on a relative’s living room couch. About three hours north of Jacksonville and five hours southeast of Atlanta, the Lowcountry thrives on low stress and good food for everyday life.
It’s easy for visiting tourists to overlook Charleston’s culinary simplicity. Each plate offers welcoming flavors—but it’s important to understand that those flavors have roots. Gullah Geechee culture maintains an influential presence in Charleston’s culinary scene. Enjoying Lowcountry cuisine involves understanding Gullah Geechee culture, as the two are inherently linked.
Charleston has a complex — often dark — history. The story of Gullah Geechee cuisine often obscures truths, allowing guides or chefs to bypass the reality of chattel slavery and its lasting impact on food. For the moment, it makes the story easier to tell, but harder to explain as generations pass. In this sense, simplicity is a hindrance. Gullah Geechee cuisine personifies all that is good about food and culture in the Holy City, but it is not always acknowledged.
However, the issue continues to improve. Local museums, festival planners, and chefs align with storytelling that supports Gullah Geechee culture. In true Lowcountry fashion, keeping things simple — and true — allows tourists to understand the importance of Gullah Geechee heritage in American history. It begins with telling the story of rice and how it created a culture in a small Southern Port City.
Binyah
Charleston, South Carolina, differs from most Southern cities. While some traditional customs, like Saturday afternoon SEC football games, eating grits, and barefoot childhood races on dirt roads, persist, rice has crafted a distinctive culture and dialect unique to the Lowcountry. The Gullah Geechee community calls themselves Binyahs, which means a person who has “been here” or has ancestry tracing back to the first West Africans brought to the Lowcountry. Enslaved West Africans arrived in the Lowcountry in the late 1600s. Their knowledge and ingenuity benefited agriculture. Their life along the Rice Coast (Senegal, Gambia, Sierra Leone, and Liberia) afforded them expertise in tidal irrigation systems, wetland management, and sustainable rice-harvesting techniques. European colonists enslaved West Africans, foreseeing agricultural profit in the New World.
The South Carolina economy boomed as a result. A misconception is that cotton made the South. KJ Kearney, owner of the social media platform, Black Food Fridays, says, “Rice was king in Charleston.” South Carolina exported more than 90 million pounds of rice from the 18th and 19th centuries. Rice generated $2-4 million annually during this period. After the Civil War, during Reconstruction, many freed West African descendants moved to the Sea Islands. Edisto, St. Helena, and Johns Islands, among others, allowed descendants to maintain their African customs and traditions. The landscape of the Lowcountry’s wetlands shared similarities in biodiversity and geography with West Africa’s Rice Coast.
The proximity to water enabled emancipated West African descendants to cultivate rice. Rice harvesting was more than an act of farming; it was a form of cultural reclamation after the Civil War. The location provided the essentials for a thriving culture. The Gullah Geechee lifestyle originated in West Africa but developed in the Lowcountry. Sweetgrass basket-making, an English-based Creole language, and a seafood-and-rice-focused diet are among the impressions that emerged. Agriculture preserved our identity despite the horrific Middle Passage and centuries of enslavement.
West Africans were enslaved not to learn farming but because of their farming knowledge. From their arrival through emancipation and even today, Gullah Geechee culture’s preservation depends on our connection to the land, water, and the rice we eat. The Gullah mastery of rice cultivation, passed down through oral traditions, was wrapped in a Creole language and lived in a similar West African lore on the Lowcountry Sea Islands. It’s a badge we wear with confidence and pride, knowing we descended from beyond European bondage.
Dat Pot Eat Gud!
Lowcountry red rice is the close cousin of West African jollof rice (Ghana, Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone, and Cameroon) and an even closer cousin to Senegalese thieboudienne. The dish symbolizes family and unity, providing a glimpse into ancestral roots across the Atlantic. When made with love, you can confidently say, “Dat pot eat gud!” This phrase not only praises the deliciousness of the food but also honors how Gullah Geechee culture has persisted through generations and anticipates a celebrated future in the culinary world.
If rice carries the spirit of the Gullah Geechee culture, red rice carries the heart. Amethyst Ganaway, a chef and author from Charleston, states, “These dishes [red rice] have always been made in relatively large portions.” You find red rice at every party, home-going service, or Sunday dinner. “It’s part of our [West African] DNA,” chef BJ Dennis adds. When there is space to gather, there’s a reason to eat, and red rice occupies that void.
Today, the Gullah Geechee culinary scene gains worldwide recognition. Alyssa Maute Smith, Charleston Wine and Food Festival’s Executive Director, states, “You can’t talk about Lowcountry food, the resilience of the Gullah Geechee people, and leave rice out of the equation.” The Lowcountry rice culture links West African traditions with our food and culture in South Carolina. Growing up in the Lowcountry, I believed everyone shared our Gullah Geechee way of life. The deep West African roots of my childhood shaped me—and their influence continues to thrive today.
Ya Eye Long
I was a greedy kid. I spent most of my youth fishing off the docks at Backman’s Seafood or groveling through pluff mud searching for fiddler crabs on Mosquito Beach. I worked up quite an appetite from all that, which meant I could have a second helping of red rice when I came inside from playing. Whenever I didn’t finish the second plate, the elder who fixed my meal would jokingly say, “Boy, ya eye long, innit?” I wanted more, but my stomach had no more room for food. My eyes were “longer” than my appetite. Protecting Gullah Geechee food and culture needs similar guardrails. Its recent popularity in the culinary industry gives me pause, as it risks cultural appropriation and the omission of the Gullah Geechee story.
The resurgence of Gullah Geechee food brings excitement and opportunity. However, voracity can lead a simple lifestyle and culture to drift away from its traditions. The simplicity of red rice and rice culture in the Lowcountry exemplifies community. A trait the dish has owned since its origins. Senegalese chef Bintou N’Daw, owner of Bintu Atelier in Charleston, notes the depths of rice culture in Senegal: “Out of 7 Senegalese dishes, rice accounts for 5 of them, regardless of social or economic class.”
Gullah Geechee rice culture is no different. A dinner table with no rice seems unnatural, “Rice shows up in all my childhood meals and memories,” says writer and director Tyquan Morton. Justin Wages, Co-founder of Don Luci Wines, grew up eating rice with family, and even still today, “I eat rice every day. It’s like taking medicine the ancestors prepared.” The Lowcountry never runs out of simplicity — from memory, labor, or with every grain of prepared Carolina Gold rice. Gullah Geechee stories stay alive with every plate served, but only when told plainly and honestly. Keeping the Gullah Geechee rice culture simple ensures that what matters is never lost.