My young Brother, it was an absolute DELIGHT to read this story!!! I'm an old broad, born and raised in Charleston, whose HUGE maternal family is from Edisto Island -- so I think I know "from whence you came" as James Baldwin wrote. Please, KEEP SPEAKIN' ALL OF IT!!

I know the Oyotunji Village well. In my younger days, I've been there several times for blessings and other various and sundry things (with which I chose not to personally partake). I even met a guy there, Omowale, with whom I thought I'd fell in love (what does a 16 year-old know about love???).

When my cousins from New York (a result of The Great Migration) came "down South, they too made fun of the way we talked. And, as you said, growing up among my own people, I've never felt I had something to prove as a Black person because back then, we were everywhere!

I SO appreciate your writing in the Gullah dialect! Most of my family from the island are gone and I'll never, ever hear that sweet sing-song from them again, which is why I'm following you right now!