Honey Bea’S… Gullah Stew Fuh De Spirit: Life Everlasting Recipes, Sayings, Ministries, and Stories

By Lornabelle Gethers

This book is based on collections passed through generations from my mother, Bea, my grandmother, Honey and my great-great grandmother, Maah. It shares Maahs journey from the Upcountry of Abbeville, South Carolina to the Lowcountry of Charleston and the sayings and food that fed their lives. My family loved to cook and share their meals with others and this book incorporates Honey Beas familys recipes for simple meals from days gone by and their sayings, and stories for wisdom along with the Gullah Geechie heritage. At the end, I want to encourage you to research, preserve, write and publish your own familys story.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Jun 16, 2014
• ISBN: 9781499030235

Lornabelle Gethers

Lornabelle Gethers is an author, poet, and Gullah Geechee speaker from Mount Pleasant, South Carolina. Her two previous books, Honey Bea’s Everlasting Gift and Honey Bea’s Gullah Stew Fuh De Spirit, both honor the Gullah Geechee culture of the Charleston Lowcountry as well as her parents and other ancestors going back as far as the day they were emancipated from slavery on a plantation in upstate Abbeville, South Carolina.

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Copyright © 2014 by Lornabelle Gethers.

ISBN: Softcover 978-1-4990-3024-2

eBook 978-1-4990-3023-5

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Rev. date: 06/10/2014

To order additional copies of this book, contact:

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CONTENTS

Honey Bea’s Gullah Stew Fuh De Spirit

Dedication

My Prayer

Introduction

They Be Fuh Bring Bone And Fuh Carry Bone

Doan Let The Hag Come Fuh Ride

Who Mella With Hunna

I Gee God All The Praises

The Rockier The Sea - The Nearer The Shore

Mossas Say We Nuttin, But We Know We Somethin

Hunna Dis And Hunna Dat

Hambone Pat

Maah’s Story Of The First Christmas

Maah’s Christmas Story Bout Tilly The Yard Bird

The Ministry Of Honey Bea And Maah’s Family

Daniel And The Lion’s Den And Daniel In The Fiery Furnace

The Tater Farmer And The Sign

The Boy That Been Fuh Fall Out The Bed

A Word From Honey Bea

The Wisdom Of Honey Bea And Maah’s Family

The Recipes Of Honey Bea And Maah’s Family

Stews And Soups

Seafood And Other Meats

Vegetables

Rice

Pasta And Salads

Breads

Sweets And Desserts

My Family’s Story: Honey Bea’s Everlasting Gift

Honey Bea’s Funeral

Honey Bea’s Words

Maah Charlotte Frazier Holmes. 1855-1943

Tenk Ya God For Yo Son, Sweet Jesus - We Be Free Now

We Fuh Go Ta Chuston

Hey Comes We Chillun And Honey

Honey Done Fall In Love

De Grans And Great Gran Chillun All Fuh Stat Fuh Come

Those Two Mile Gals Wit De Two Cent Grin- Honey Bea And Gracey

Honey’s True Love

Honey Bea Done Jump De Broom

Honey Bea Rememberin Maah

English Interpretation Of First Four Gullah Chapters

Modern English Version Of - Tenk Ya God For Yo Son, Sweet Jesus - We Be Free Now

Modern English Version Of – We Fuh Go Ta Chuston

Modern English Version Of –Hey Comes We Chillun And Honey

Words From The Author

I Remember My Mama In A Special Way

A Lesson In Hope And Wisdom

Honey Bea’s Gullah Stew Fuh De Spirit

In loving memory of all of my mothers who have crossed over to the other side.

Psalm 78: 1 - 7

Give ear, O my people, to my law: incline your ears to the words of my mouth. I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old: Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done. For he established a testimony in Jacob, and appointed a law in Israel, which he commanded our fathers, that they should make them known to their children: That the generation to come might know them, even the children which should be born; who should arise and declare them to their children: That they might set their hope in God, and not forget the works of God, but keep his commandments.

Dedication

I dedicate this book to my children, Crystal, Vincent, and Katrina; to my granddaughter, Shai and those to come; to my sisters, nieces, nephews, my first cousins, and their children. I want them to forever taste the flavor of all of the people that were in my life as a youth, that influenced my life so greatly, which included, Maah, although she was long gone before I came along; Grandmama Honey, Mama Bea, Daddy Lil Ike, their friends, my aunts and uncles, and other family members. I also dedicate it to the people of Olive Branch A.M.E. Church, my friends, employees of the Postal Service and the communities and schools of Mount Pleasant, SC.

My Prayer

Father God in the name of Jesus, I thank you and praise you and worship you. You are an awesome God and I love you. There is no one else like you. You spoke and the heaven and earth were made. I thank you for putting power into the art of words and speaking.

As I write this book in honor to the memory of my ancestors, I need your leadership and guidance. I need your spirit and those of my people that went before me, in order to bring these stories and thoughts to life through putting their words to pen and paper.

I ask you to breathe on me now and guide me. I realize that I can’t even walk without you holding my hand. I believe that you have begun a good work in me and you will bring it to completion. I ask you to help me and to anoint my hands, my heart, and my mind, so that you will make this work great, as you have done in my two favorite writers, Toni Morrison and Terry McMillan’s works. I need the greatness of their talent to flow through me now. I thank you Father God, and count it done now, in Jesus name. Amen.

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Introduction

My mother and my grandmother really did not speak a lot of Gullah except when Mama was saying, Maah used to say this and Maah used to say that…. They both used to put such great emphasis on speaking proper English, and on education and getting ahead, so maybe that was the reason. But even so, my mother found so much wisdom in Maah’s Gullah sayings that almost daily, she would tell me what her great grandmother used to say in Gullah and explain to me what it meant, and I grew up in the Lowcountry where many of my other older family members spoke it, so it is still very much a part of my ancestry and my heritage that I treasure and I speak it fluently at presentations. If my grandmother was upset about something, then a hunna or two would come out. Hunna was a Gullah word for you.

I honor the generations of those that came before me. I am a descendant of the former slaves of Abbeville, South Carolina and I am a part of the heritage of the Gullah people of the Lowcountry of Mount Pleasant and Charleston, South Carolina. Some had at one time regarded the Gullah Geechie people of the islands near Beaufort and the lowcountry near Charleston to be groups of ignorant people, but today most are recognizing the wisdom that they held as a connected people of heritage. Many now know that our foreparents were as wise as they come and many are now realizing that Gullah doesn’t mean gullible or uneducated. They were wise because they were able to pass this rich heritage on orally to generations to come. We are wise when we continue to pass down this rich inheritance on to those that are coming behind us by having listened to and repeating the stories and words of wisdom of those that came before us. We are wise if we are able to continue a strong attachment to God our father and we are also wise if we are able to hold on to the sayings of our motherland of Africa forever.

Some may consider it to be a book of nonsensical words and wonder why it should be passed on to our offspring. I am passing it on because I see the value in those sayings and because all of the people that I knew that spoke it have gone on and I want my granddaughter to know it. I want her to know that God often buries treasures in broken vessels and in those that don’t seem appetizing and enticing to the naked eyes. He uses the seemingly foolish things to confound the wise. He places gold in the hidden places of the earth. He places pearls in the crusty shells of the oysters. He placed wisdom beyond our recognition in the sayings of our ancestors.

They had to be some of the wisest people in the world in order to have been able to hold on so tightly to their African roots through all that they had been through. Even after being traded, stolen, beaten, shackled, and traveling so many miles in sickening and tight quarters from the mother land to a very foreign land with foreign climates, foreign cultures, foreign food, and foreign language they miraculously held on to bits and pieces of it all. They had their own way of communicating by saying, dey dey yet for still, gee for give or by saying, yeddy for hear or also yah for hear, as in hunna yah me? And yah or ya and dey yah also meant here, as in hunna come yah. They held onto African words like onuh which meant you which my ancestors pronounced as hunna and unna. And they held onto buckruh which meant white man and my ancestors pronounced buckra.

I am so proud of my ancestry and the strength that empowered my ancestors. I admire their tenacity and their faith in a God that many would not have been able to put their trust in because of the circumstances. They not only trusted and believed in God, but they were sure to past that down to their offspring and any others that would listen to them as they shared their faith and their wisdom through stories and sayings. They have passed that same torch on to me and to those like me who are of the Lowcountry of South Carolina. If your ancestors were a part of the Gullah-Geechie culture it is almost a duty to insure that it is passed on and preserved for future generations. Who are we with our cushy lives in comparison to dare not continue to hold on to it and reverence it in some capacity?

Our ancestors did not have a lot of money or material things to pass on to future generations, but if we would put into practice their seemingly meaningless sayings and blind trust in God, we would realize that what they did pass on is worth its weight in gold. Those sayings mixed with trust in God were really recipes of wisdom for our everyday living. With simple recipes of wisdom they fed our souls and with simple unwritten recipes for meals, they fed our bodies.

My mind goes back to thoughts of my mother and my grandmother and the stories and sayings of her grandmother, Maah. I know that I owe them and my daddy a big thank you and a heart filled with gratitude, as well as to my Heavenly Father. I owe them all a thank you for using the wisdom that brought them from the Civil War era to the Civil Rights era and is still bringing us through even today. They were slaves that were uneducated for the most part, and even after the Civil War, they remained field workers, cooks, and maids. Some were later educated and some were not, but what they did not have in book smart, they made up for it in common sense and they used the sayings that were passed down to them from generation to generation as gospel along with the true gospel of the word of the living God, which they received from the bible and the Olive Branch Church that they all so dearly loved.

Mama was just like Grandmama when it came to her church and her pastors. They both believed in honor. Mama would never talk badly about any of her pastors no matter what others said about them. She would say that it was between them and God. She honored God with her tithes and offering and never looked at is as giving to anyone, but to her father. She honored the elderly people and I believe that is why I love older people so much. She believed in honoring her mother and her father. She would say that Maah said that hunna maah be yah dis yah world God. She used to say that your mother is your this world God. I used to think that it sounded a little sacrilegious, but now that she is gone, I understand what she meant. She meant that you should honor your parents more than anyone else in this world after God. It is God’s first relationship that he gave to you and the Bible says to honor your mother and your father so that things will go well with you and you would have good success.

That was one thing that my mama really believed in and the other was that God blesses you to be a blessing. She believed that you could not beat God’s giving and that the more that you gave, the more he would give back to you. She looked at giving as a seed that you planted and that you would later get a harvest out of. She knew how to name her seeds and to wrap them all with expectancy. She knew that you would reap what you sow if you considered your giving to be a seed to come back and looked for it and watered it with God’s words by speaking over it.

Most only look at that sentence of you reap what you sow, as a type of sentencing to someone that has unjustly wronged them, but mama also looked at it as sowing seeds of giving into ministries and into other people’s lives. Mama could not stand to see anyone go hungry. She donated to every ministry and organization that was geared to feeding the hungry or helping children or veterans. Mama, Honey Bea and Daddy Lil Ike Gethers were people of service all of my life. They were encouragers to many and always told others that they could make it and told all that they could do better by praying and trusting in the Lord. They drove others to church weekly, fed the sick and the elderly -sometimes daily; they visited and prayed for the sick in hospitals and in individual homes, and they took others to doctor’s appointments and government assistance agencies to seek temporary reliefs, although they never used any of these agencies for themselves. They sowed great seeds of kindness and words of wisdom into so many others’ lives during their time on this earth. My ancestors left their foot print in this world and I want to share this foot print with you by sharing their wisdom with you.

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They Be Fuh Bring Bone and Fuh Carry Bone

Them folks that be fuh bring bone and fuh carry bone too,

Be the one that hunnah gut fuh feed wit a long handle spoon.

Aint fuh do nuttin, but fuh cause confusion and fuh instigate trouble,

Aint know God fuh see what ee fuh do and one day ee gah get double.

They aint care who they fuh talk bout if it be they tita or they bubba,

They gut fuh talk bout me, hunna, and all ah one another.

They’ll grin in hunna face, and ee aint fuh care a bit,

Their words they gah trow, and aint know who ee be fuh hit.

Them kinda folks hunna gut fuh gee im to the Lord,

Cause ee talk about we and ee use ee words like a sword.

Ee cut goin in and ee cut goin out,

Ee aint never know when fuh shut up ee big mout.

Doan hunna worry and doan hunna fret,

Ee gah meet that again, on that ee cah bet.

Doan hunna fuss and doan hunna care,

Ee guh meet im again so hunna aint gut fuh sware.

From ee head way down to ee big ole toe,

Mark my words now, ee guh reap what ee sow.

Them folks that be fuh bring bone and fuh carry bone too,

Make sure hunna aint one of im that fit in that they shoe.

Doan Let The Hag Come Fuh Ride

Doan let the hag come fuh ride hunna tonight,

If ee come yah fuh me ee gah be a good fight.

I gah find me a broom full of that they straw,

And look out fuh im while ee hee and ee haw.

Gah make sure I trow down some of that salt,

If ee get stuck out ee skin ee ain’t gah be my fault.

The git fuh im cause that’s what ee need fah get,

Try fuh ride all of we folks fuh git all ah we bret.

Who Mella with Hunna

Who that be fuh mella with hunna now?

Gut that lip poke out with a big ole frown.

Aint crack ee teet fuh laugh nor fuh smile,

Who be fuh mella with hunna all the while?

Get me a switch off that hickory tree,

I gah whip im fuh sure when hunna fuh tell me.

Ee could dance and dodge jess as much as ee please,

Ee could get down and beg me on ee ole rusty knees.

Now that I know, ee gah get it fuh sure,

Mella my gal, I done tell him before.

Ole ranky tank sef, jess fuh mella my chile,

Pick on my lil gal, that fuh be he style.

He betta find somebody that be he ownt size,

Mella im again, next time I’ll knock out ee eyes.

I Gee God All the Praises

I gee God all the praises jess fuh one more day,

I gee im all the tenks more than my words cah ever say.

Ee breng me tru danger, many seen and unseen,

Ee get me from dirt and ee make me fuh be clean.

Ee pick me up out the miry clay,

I gee im all the tenks more than my words cah ever say.

If I had ten thousand tongues, I couldn’t praise him enough,

Ee smooth out them days that use fuh be so rough.

Lord look where ee done breng me from,

I gah praise im from now till kingdom come.

When I tink of ee goodness and all ee breng me tru,

I sing hallelujah cause ee all feel brand new.

The Rockier the Sea - The Nearer the Shore

When ee look like all hope forever be gone,

And ee look like the night ain’t gah never bring morn.

That’s the time fuh hold tight to that sturdy oar,

Famember the rockier the sea, the nearer the shore.

So keep the faith and don’t ever give up hope,

Don’t let go ee hand and fall down the slippery slope.

Just when ee seem like ee aint gah go yah way,

That be the time fuh stand and say like God word fuh say.

He aint gah leave or forsake, what ee say ee gah do, ee gah do,

Jess put yah trust in him and he gah bring hunna tru.

Wipe them eyes and shed no more tears,

Cast yah cares on him and gee him all yah fears.

He’ll be yah shepherd and hunna shall not want,

He’ll fight yah battles and take on all of yah giants,

He’ll forgive the past and restore all that be lost.

As far as east to west be where ee done been tossed.

He’ll dip hunna in he blood and make im like pure snow,

And give hunna a testimony for all others fuh know.

So if yah heart be broke and hunna feel all hope be gone,

Know that he done speak and like he say in the book of John.

Abide in me and I’ll abide in thee,

Ask what hunna will of me, and it all gah surely be.

Trust in him and he’ll give hunna desires of ee heart,

Stand on he word and he aint gah never depart.

God aint fuh be no man and he aint gah never lie,

If he say im, then he gah do im, all by and by.

Without faith ee be impossible for him fuh be pleased,

So believe in him when hunna fall down to ee knees.

When that body seem fuh rack full of pain,

And there be little sun fuh shine and too mucha rain.

When cupbards fuh be bare and money fuh be low,

Put yah trust in the Lord and to hunna he gah show.

He gah lead hunna and guide im and open up doors,

Jess famember the rockier the sea, the nearer be the shore.

Mossas Say We Nuttin, But We Know We Somethin

Mossas say we nuttin,

But we know we somethin.

They say we come yah from nuttin,

So they treat we like nuttin,

They take we way from we home like nuttin,

They chain we like nuttin,

Call we cargo like nuttin,

Trow some of we overboard like nuttin,

They sell we like nuttin,

They buy we like nuttin,

They whip we like nuttin,

They work we like nuttin,

They rape we like nuttin,

Treat the baby we gee im like nuttin,

They kill we like nuttin,

They tell we, we nuttin,

But we know we somethin.

They can’t take away we somethin, to make we be their nuttin,

Cause we know we be somethin and somethin be in we.

We know kings and queens be in we,

We know royalty be in we,

We know majesty be in we,

We know all the wisdom of all the worlds be in we,

We know the beginnings of this universe and life be in we,

We know all kinds of gifts of we mind be in we,

We know all the strength of we hands be in we,

We know the power of we words be in we,

So we hide im in we heart so we cah hold on to we somethin,

We pass im on down to we chillun so they know we somethin,

We don’t let mossas know all bout we somethin,

So we tell all we kin in secret so they know bout we somethin,

Cause if Mossas know they goan try fuh take we somethin,

If they know they goan try fuh beat out we somethin,

If they know they goan treat all of we somethin, like the nuttin they been fuh tell we that we be.

Tenk God we know ee ain’t fuh truit and we dey dey yet fuh gut we somethin deep down in we,

And we gee im to we chillun fuh keep im fuh go on down to all of we roots and we trees.

Nuttin can wash away all of we somethin, not even all the water round the ships they breng we on, thru on all of them seas.

After all they been fuh do to we somethin, fuh try fuh make im fuh be their nuttin, we still fuh got all of we somethin dey dey yet down in all of we.

Hunna Dis and Hunna Dat

Hunna dis and hunna dat,

Hunna done tief my ole tom cat.

Frock tail gal jess as greedy as can be,

Don’t vite me no more, fuh me fuh come eat.

Hunna eat the corn, and gee me the husk,

Hunna eat the bread and gee me the crust.

Hunna eat the fish and gee me the bone,

Hunna aint know when fuh leave me ’lone.

Hunna eat the meat and gee me the skin,

That be how ole stingy dey dey begin.

Aint crack ee teet fuh gee me a smile,

Hunna treat me bad all the while.

Hunna eat the stew and leave me the bowl,

Hunna aint care ’bout a livin soul.

Hunna drink the tea and leave me the cup,

Hunna aint no good fuh me fuh come sup.

Sometimey sef, just as moody as can be,

Hunna aint fuh gee me no sympathy.

Hunna dis and hunna dat,

Aint even leave me a lil bit of fat.

Hunna dat and hunna dit,

Aint even leave me none of ee spit.

Hambone Pat

Hambone, Hambone, what I say?

Hunna know how fuh lead the way.

Pat them thighs and pat that chest,

Go from there and do the rest.

Hambone, Hambone, where ee been?

Been round the world and gah go again.

Hambone, Hambone when ee get back,

Gah dance all round that little shack.

What else ee gah do when ee get back?

Take the path by the ole train track. Hambone, Hambone, bring it home, A-ahh do that snazzy Hambone.

Like sporty Bill from ‘Clellanville,

Never work and never will.

Pat them thighs and pat that chest,

When it comes to Hambone, he’s the best.

My mama, Honey Bea lived by the word of God, but she also included in her daily life, the wisdom of all of her great-grandmother and a former child slave, Maah’s sayings and recipes that she had shared with her through the years. I will share some of those with you later, but now I would like to share a little Christmas story from days past and a few other stories.

I could just hear Maah now as she told the story of the first Christmas and also the story that she told others of one of her favorite Christmases. Just sit back and listen to Maah as she tells you all about it….

Maah’s Story of the First Christmas

I always did love Christmas. Even back in the slavery days. I dey dey yet been a lil gal when we get we freedom. My maah, Mae Ann been the house cook and she learn me how fuh cook and how fuh make a way out a no way and how fuh make a meal out of nuttin. We mosely been fuh make we meal by trowin a lil a this and a lil of that and then fuh mix im all togetter fuh be a soup or a stew fuh eat out the bowl. They say the good Lord ill make a way out a no way, and that’s all we had fuh pend on, cause aint nobody had much a nuttin when we been fuh live in Abbeville after them slavery days. That been why we been fuh move to Charleston fuh make something of we self. I growed up the ress of my time from when I been bout thirteen in good ole Hungryneck right dey dey near Charleston, right cross that big Coopa Ribber that we been fuh take a ferry boat fuh cross.

Now I done get fuh be a grown ole oman. I been done learn fuh cook way back yonder, long time ago. And then I been fuh pass all of them tings down to all of my gals and I even been fuh learn lil Honey Bea how fuh cook all a them tings jess like all the Hungryneck buckras been fuh like. All of we folks been de cooks. Honey could tell hunna folks bout the time that that no good gal been fuh give she trouble jess on de count that she been fuh cook fuh them buckras stead of fuh work in the fields. She been fuh tell Honey that Honey been fuh tink she been betta than the other folks and that she been fuh tink she been a buckra like the ones she been fuh cook fuh. Gal, that been a time. She been fuh say all kind a tings to she, but Honey jess keep right on fuh be a true oman and fuh hold she head up high. Aint a ting wrong with bein a good cook and all of we folks dey dey yet love fuh cook even up to dis yah day.

The mose time that we been fuh cook be when Christmas be dey dey yah. On the count that they tell me that Christmas be dey dey right round the corner now, I want fuh tell hunna good folks some tings that I done know. Dis yah, fuh be my bess Christmas gift fuh hunna chillun. Hunna yah me? Dis yah, fuh be Honey Bea’s Maah gift fuh hunna. Some of