Dear friends,

I am writing to you from Edisto Island, South Carolina, en route to Miami.

“Kumbaya” is a familiar song that has entered our lexicon as a symbol of the passivity and futility of racial and political harmony. But this is far from the song’s origins. Kumbaya is a Gullah Geechee phrase and call to action that means “Come by here, Lord.” It is a prayer to the Most High for strength, guidance, and covering amid violence and oppression.

It is estimated that more than half of all Africans enslaved in America were trafficked through Charleston, South Carolina. Contrary to the narrative that the ancestors of the Black community were lowly and uneducated, hence their subjugation, these people were skilled blacksmiths, artisans, and builders. They arrived with generational scientific knowledge and technological expertise that made the cultivation of rice, indigo, and cotton in America exponentially profitable.

Africans brought rice to America. Their descendants, today known as Geechee, worked on plantations in isolation along the eastern coast. When Sherman’s promise of 40 acres fell through after the Civil War, they fought to buy the land they worked on—places like Edisto Island. By holding on to their land, distinct language, and traditional African culture, they are still standing to this day. If you ever sang Kumbaya, you were speaking Geechee.

Once Zuckerberg, Musk, and Bezos all gave subtle or not-so-subtle endorsements, I saw the writing on the wall for this election. While I do not seek to be right, as the leader of this movement, my goal is to be prepared. I intentionally planned to host our conference directly after the election as a space for us all to decompress, break bread, vision, and plot together.

How do we survive under escalating oppressive conditions? We go back to our roots. I planned this drive through the Low Country 一 South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida一 to learn what the Geechee people, the portals of African American culture, could teach us about the future of America: to pray and seek God’s voice, to find instruction under the living oak, in dense saltwater marshes, and on shell-covered shores.

Where there is no vision, the people perish. But we cannot vision if we do not have a word, a confirmation that we will survive and flourish no matter what. We need vision to build because building requires persistence, hard work, and dedication. It requires faith, not sight. Because of what our ancestors did, they could not actually see, but they had to believe against belief.

On the grounds of the historic Penn Center on St. Helena Island, as thousands of Geechee descendants, young and old, celebrated the 40th Heritage Day, I witnessed the past, present, and future come together—a reminder that in Africa, we knew time to be circular, not linear.

How do we transcend racial hostility and political violence? We sing Kumbaya. Our power is in our chants. For those who will be joining us, I look forward to seeing you next week! For those who cannot make it, know you will be with us in spirit.

Thank you for being a part of what we have built and continue to grow.

Much love,

Yeshimabeit

See you in exactly one week!

All conference announcements from here on out will be made via the conference app. For information regarding program announcements, room locations, block party, Black Miami tour, and Virginia Key Beach trip, you may refer to the app. All registered attendees and speakers will receive a link to sign up for the app this week. If you have not received your link, please email conference@d4bl.org.

For those who have not yet registered, online registration will remain open until Sunday evening, and we will have limited tickets available at the door each day of the conference.