Diane Cameron in the South Carolina's Low Country Area

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International Vocalist, Actress, Diane Cameron is quickly feeling at home in the Low Country area since arriving in Charleston in July. Ms. Cameron is the 2004 & 2005 USA Artist to the Republic of Benin, She is a 2005 KORA Awards Nominee for her CD "The Reconciliation", a CD that memorializes, celebrates and laments people, places and events in African History She has toured other cities and locations internationally and nationally for the purpose of researching and archiving African American History She stresses the importance of preservation of the African culture throughout the world.

Ms. Cameron chose Charleston, Hilton Head Island and the outlying Carolina Sea Islands as her place of study and research because of the bounteous heritage the Gullah people brought to the area from West Africa and Sierra Leone. She is the Summer/Fall Artist in Residence to the De Gullah Creations Gallery" an art gallery and Diasporic cultural center located in the Charleston, South Carolina Citadel Mall. The gallery is owned and operated by Ms. Johnnie Mitchell, a native Hilton Head Islander. Diane was a guest vocalist for the Native Island Gullah Festival this past February during their Sweetheart Ball.

Since her July arrival Diane has performed with some of the Low Country's finest musicians and is in the process of forming a new Jazz Band to back her as she continues touring with her genre of music she calls "Diasjazzpora". She tells us "Diasjazzpora is the music that combines our Royal African beginnings, middle passage sufferings and present day freedoms and challenges using rhythms, lyrics and emotions chronicling Africa's Diaspora from Eden to now."

Ms. Cameron: "I came to the Low Country Hilton Head Island area for the first time in 1989. I have never been so affected by any one place in my life, and in all my travels nationally and abroad there is something very special and spiritual about this area that keeps calling me back. The food is addictive, the dialect infectious, the ebullient history documents a people full of resiliency that now own some of the very land in which they once worked as slaves on plantations. Gullah/Geeche is the name of the African American community living along the Carolina Coast. The Gullah's were experts in cultivating rice, shrimping and indigo artisans. Close knit and spiritually bonded, the Gullah/Geeche Nation even has a hierarchy, which consists of a Queen named Marquetta Goodwine or 'Queen Quet' as she is reverently called. I believe these survivors of the Middle Passage living in the South Carolina Low Country Area are priceless diamonds on the Eastern Coast of the United States from a cultural and historical standpoint; they have such a keen sense of respect for the elders of the family. One of the most important resources we have in our communities are our elders, we need to sit at their feet and savor their reservoir of knowledge. Grandparents are walking breathing volumes of history and facts.

I challenge all of the seed of Diaspora to embrace grandparents and great-grandparents and document everything they tell you about your family's heritage. Pass the information on to your children and teach them to do the same. Get involved with groups and organizations of like-minded people and institute a museum to preserve and protect the information received."

Ms. Cameron is currently writing the original script and music for the musical drama "En De Beginning" the story of the perseverance, faith and determination of the Gullah people who settled in the Sea Islands along the Georgia and South Carolina coast from Africa to now…told through music, dance, spoken word including a spectacular cast. The play is to be part of the Native Islanders Gullah Festival held each year in February 2007 on Hilton Head Island, SC.

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