Exploring Gullah heritage: Keeping African traditions alive in the US

It’s market day in Charleston, South Carolina. Hundreds of people bustle about the historic business district, wandering from stall to stall.

In the middle of the market hall, a man wearing a red T-shirt and a gold chain is sitting in a folding chair, threading blades of dry grass in and out as he weaves, the partly-finished basket resting in his lap.

Corey Alston is using sweetgrass for his basketry, one of the oldest and most beautiful handicrafts of African origin in the US. “I harvested and dried the reeds myself,” he says as he reaches for a new bundle…

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