New Orleans, Louisiana is my hometown.

Where history doesn't sit still.

For Centuries enslaved Africans and free people of color gathered right here at Congo Square.

Holding on to traditions through music, movement, and community.

Those traditions have roots that reach all the way back to Africa.

But what if you could trace that bond back for yourself?

I visited Savannah, Georgia, to meet a Gullah Geechee woman who did just that.

Now she’s inviting us on her royal journey of ancestral reconnection.

I am Tarriona “Tank” Ball, and this is Ritual.

The Gullah Geechee people are descendants of enslaved West and Central Africans, who were brought to the Sea Islands and Coastal Lowcountry of the southeastern United States.

Across generations, they preserved distinct language, traditions and spiritual practices.

Janiqwa Nganga is a Gullah Geechee woman and a Savannah native.

Bateke Elders in the Republic of Congo, in Central Africa bestowed upon her the title Queen Nqwamary.

Your name is so amazing.

I've been thinking about it.

I just keep saying in my mind, Queen Nqwamary, ou Nqwamary.

Ou Nqwamary.

Is that how you pronounce it?

Asé.

[Tank Laughs] Nqwamary.

Nqwamary.

I love that.

You are a Gullah Geechee woman.

Yes I am.

What does that mean to you?

Yes I am.

Oh, being a Gullah Geechee woman... I can trace my ancestry through my matriclan, my mother's back at least five generations.

Wow.

I just think it's important for people to understand that we want to create a unity between us in the diaspora, with our ancestral ethnic groups... Mmm... In the homeland.

It's really important.

It strengthens us.

How did you become a queen?

So I have been a spiritual leader for almost 20 years now.

Both of my parents transitioned and I wanted to know about my father's ancestry.

So he took an ancestry test, and it came back to four tribes of the Kingdom of Kongo.

So I was already initiated in several spiritual traditions, one of which is an Afro-Cuban tradition that's linked to the Congo.

I made contact with the representative of the Bateke ethnic group.

They were intrigued by my story, and they asked for the certificate of the ancestry test.

They asked for my birth certificate, my father's name, and we just continued to connect from there.

And I made a trip to the Congo to meet them in person.

To meet your family?

To meet my family.

In the Congo?

In the Congo.

Which a lot of people were like, “Who are you going to the Congo?” You going to go all the way there?

Yes.

Now, I understand that my history goes back for centuries With a royal lineage that's still intact.

[African Drumming and Chants] Each year she brings that connection to life through the Isis Moon Festival.

A celebration of Gullah Geechee tradition and a way to honor and connect with the ancestors.

Her journey bridges what endures here and what still calls from the African continent.

And we are really standing on the land of the ancestors.

Most especially where ancestors was buried.

Mmm Hmm.

It's a very great privilege because we're calling on their ancestors.

We are calling on the energy of them to come down.

Today shall be a wonderful day.

[Speaks in African Language] [Sings/Chants in African Language] [Sings/Chants in African Language] [African Drumming Plays] The festival culminates with the Yemoo Oshun River Procession honoring Oshun and Yemoo.

Sacred Orishas in the Yoruba religious tradition.

[Praying in African Language] Esu please accept all our prayers today.

Asé.

[Praying in African Language] And remove all the obstacles... An Orisha is an elevated ancestor.

Orishas are connected to nature.

They are divinities that were sent to help create the world we live in.

One that is very popular is Oshun.

Oshun is the Yoruba deity or goddess of love fertility motherhood, nurturing, aesthetics, creativity, beauty, Mmm... Divine femininity.

Oh... Mm hmm... Oh, I like that.

Mm hmm... Is there an Ogun?

There is an Ogun!

What does that mean?

You know a little something!

I mean, I heard something!

You know a little something!

[Laughs] There is an Ogun.

So, Ogun, I would say that's a great example of divine masculinity.

Umm... Ogun is connected to clearing blockages out of our paths.

[African Drumming/Singing/Chanting] [Praying in African Language] Before the procession libations are poured to honor the ancestors.

Water is given back to the Earth as gratitude, memory and return.

The offerings reflect that relationship.

Yellow, honey, and sweets for Oshun.

White, pure, regal appeasements for Yemoo.

[African Chanting/Singing/Drumming] After the river procession, I carried Queen Nqwamary’s questions of return with me to the First African Baptist Church.

Where I met with Gullah Geechee historian and tour guide Dr.

Jamal Touré.

Built in 1773, it was also a safe haven for escaped slaves during the Underground Railroad, and decades later, a meeting place for the Civil Rights leaders.

Oh my God, Jamal, this place is so beautiful.

I don't think I've ever seen a church quite like this.

Welcome to historic First African Baptist Church, the oldest continuous Black church in North America.

Let me ask you an interesting question.

Go ahead.

Gullah Geechee, is that an African American thing or is that an African thing, Mmm... The term?

Mmm... Our ancestors were brought here for the knowledge of the trinity.

They’re growing cotton in Africa, weaving to cloths.

Mmm hmm... They’re growing indigo, a green plant that produced a blue dye.

Right.

And they’re growing their Asian rice.

And African rice, in Africa.

The Europeans, when they go to Africa, they just don't grab people willy nilly.

They go and they’re looking for people that have knowledge.

And so one of the groups of people that they're going to get are the people who are called the “Gola” people.

They come with the knowledge.

Knowing how to grow cotton.

Knowing how to grow rice.

So when they brought over here that word “Gola”, got corrupted to the word “Gullah.” Because Europeans, often what they do with African languages, they butcher it up.

Then you got a word “Kissi”.

And so when they now go get these people from the continent and they bring them over here and they say, “We got a ship full of Geechee”.

They use it for all of us in all these states right here.

So Gullah Geechee people, as Queen Quet has said that we are the living links to Africa, so we are the ones that still hold on to the language.

We just hold on to the culture.

I just came from witnessing the river just procession.

It was amazing.

It was so powerful.

What makes the Gullah Geechee and the water connect in such a way?

Africa vive.

Africa lives.

And so I let people understand that Gullah Geechee people We are a water people, a land people, an air people, and a fire people.

We understand that water is a part of our life, but also part of the transition.

When those African women, when they pass away, we don't go to Heaven, we go back into the water, and the mothers, the women become guardian angels.

Mami Wata.

Or they become, Mai De Agua.

Or Yaya Ndew.

Mothers of the water guardian angels.

So for us it’s connected.

But don't let me get into about baptisms.

For Gullah Geechee people when we got baptized, we didn’t want to get baptized inside a pool inside the church.

We'll get baptized in the creek, the ocean, the bay, the river, or the marsh, lake or pond.

Why is that?

Because our ancestors said when the ebb tide would flow after the baptism, it was carrying our sins away.

So we talk about washing our sins away.

It’s not something symbolic for us it’s literal.

So that procession that you experienced, guess what?

That's Africa.

I love that.

So what are some of the special rituals that the Gullah Geechee people still practice today?

Whew.

Okay.

Well, we are right now inside historic First African Baptist Church.

You see, the walls in the church are painted light blue.

We would call this Haint Blue or Haant Blue.

We paint the doors of our churches red.

Of our homes red.

Mmm hmm.

That means we own the property.

Not I just got a red door!

Whoa.

[Laughs] And that's how I say, it's still with us.

They say, “If the haint, the hag, the witch or the evil spirits try to come in the house... bam!” It serves as a repellent because our ancestors say, “Anything evil cannot handle anything heavenly”.

All these shades of blue are symbolic of Heaven.

That's part of the ritual.

The rituals are about us living, continuing the story.

[African Drumming & Singing] I thought of the Egungun Masquerade.

I saw at the festival a sacred Yoruba ritual where departed spirits returned for a time to bless and advise the living.

Watching it made me wonder, what if remembering our ancestors isn't one sided?

What if they're still reaching back to us too?

I know just the fact that you know that you can trace your ancestry.

Doesn't that make you feel so powerful?

Like I know myself?

Absolutely.

But it took a while.

You know, it took a while to understand the beauty of our culture growing up.

You don't understand the greatness of it.

And I didn't embrace it.

Like a lot of people in the area.

But now, as a woman, as a queen, I understand.

This is valuable, what we have.

I believe that leaving... A legacy.

As a Gullah Geechee woman is what I'm doing now.

Yeah.

We kept a lot of our ancestral ways.

We kept a lot of the food ways, the spiritual ways.

Herbalism.

It’s a jewel, and when you lose that, you lose it.

It leaves with the ancestors.

So to keep it is very important.

It's like precious.

Our ancestors in this land went through a lot.

They went through a lot of trauma.

They worked hard to elevate us as a people to get to a point.

And that circle is still coming around.

So, it's important for us to understand our history and who we come from beyond the land that we're on now.

Queen Nqwamary taught me that some answers aren't found in words alone.

Remembrance isn't just information we discover, and ancestral reconnection isn't simply about returning to the past.

It's a continuation unfolding through the people who choose to remember, practice, and carry their traditions forward.