I Have Been Walking This Road A Long Time (Gullah Religious Song)

Edited by Azizi Powell

This post showcases the Gullah religious song "I Been Working This Road A Long Time". The Addendum to this post provides some information about Gullah language.

The content of this post is presented for cultural, religious, and aesthetic purposes.

All copyrights remain with their owners.

Thanks to The Gullah Singers Of Wadmalaw Island, South Carolina for performing this song and other songs from the Gullah traditions. Thanks also to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publisher of this video on YouTube.

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SHOWCASE VIDEO: The Gullah Singers.wmv



TheGullahLady's channel

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LYRICS - I BEEN WALKING THIS ROAD A LONG TIME
(as song by The Gullah Singers Of Wadmalaw Island, South Carolina)

Lead - I have been walkin this road*
Group- A long time
Lead - Oh Lord
Group - A long time
Lead - Oh Lord
Group - A long time
Lead - I have been walkin this road
Group - A long time
Lead and Group - And I’m not weary yet [or "I ain’t got weary yet"]

[repeat verse]

Lead - Well [or “Oh” or "Yes"] I been prayin this prayer
Group - A long time
Lead - Oh Lord
Group - A long time
Lead- Oh Lord
Group - A iong time
Lead - I have been prayin this pray
Group - A long time
Lead and Group - And I'm not weary yet

[repeat verse]

Lead - Oh I have been workin for Jesus
Group- A long time
Lead - Well
Group - A long time
Lead - Oh Lord
Group – A long time
Lead - I have been workin for Jesus
Group - A long time
Lead and Group - And I'm not weary yet
-snip-
This is my transcription of this song from that video. Additions and corrections are welcome.

*"This road" = refers to the Christian journey
In this recording, the lead sings part of the group line.

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EDITOR'S COMMENTS ABOUT THIS SONG
"I've Been Walking This Road A Long Time" has no known composer. It might be considered a Spiritual or an early Gospel song, depending on when it was first composed. Spirituals are usually considered to be those African American religious songs with unknown composers which were first composed in the 19th century and earlier.)

As is the case with Spirituals and other folk song, "I Have Been Walking This Road A Long Time" has an opened ended structure, meaning that additional verses or substitute verses can be added and/or the same verses can be repeated to prolong this song. Some additional verses for this song can be:
"I've been singin this song"
"I've been preachin the Word"
"I've been 'buked* and scorned" [*rebuked = criticized]

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THE CLOSE SIMILARITIES BETWEEN THIS SONG AND THE GOSPEL SONG "I'M NOT TIRED YET"
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THE CLOSE SIMILARITIES BETWEEN THE SONG "I'M NOT TIRED YET" AND THE GULLAH RELIGIOUS SONG "I'VE BEEN WALKING THIS ROAD FOR A LONG TIME"
In the song "I'm Not Tired Yet"* the line about running for Jesus for a long time, but "I'm not tired yet" and the other lines with that structure, are very similar to the lyrical structure of the Gullah religious song "I've Been Walking This Road A Long Time". Instead of the line "I'm not tired yet (actually I ain't got tired yet" in Inez Williams' lyrics), that line in that Gullah song is "I ain't got weary yet" (contemporary form: "I'm not weary yet". )

Since that Gullah song's use of the dialectic word "dis" instead of "this" in that song's "original" lyrics, it's probable that it is older (and likely much older) that "I'm Not Tired Yet". It seems probable to me that Inez Andrews, the composer of "I'm Not Tired Yet" was familiar with "I've Been Walking This Road For A Long Time" and that song influenced her composition.

Since that Gullah song's use of the dialectic word "dis" instead of "this" in that song's "original" lyrics, it's probable that it is older (and likely much older) that "I'm Not Tired Yet". It seems probable to me that Inez Andrews, the composer of "I'm Not Tired Yet" was familiar with "I've Been Walking This Road For A Long Time" and that song influenced her composition.

*Click http://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2014/10/two-examples-of-im-not-tired-yet-gospel.html for a pancocojams post about the Gospel song "I'm Not Tired Yet".

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ADDENDUM: SOME INFORMATION ABOUT THE GULLAH LANGUAGE
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gullah_language
"Gullah (also called Sea Island Creole English and Geechee) is a creole language spoken by the Gullah people (also called "Geechees" within the community), an African-American population living on the Sea Islands and in the coastal region of the US states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and northeast Florida. Dialects of essentially the same language are spoken in the Bahamas.[2]

The Gullah language is based on English with strong influences from West and Central African languages such as Mandinka, Wolof, Bambara, Fula, Mende, Vai, Akan, Ewe, Yoruba, Igbo, Hausa, Kongo, Umbundu, and Kimbundu."

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From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bajan_Creole
"Bajan is the Caribbean creole with grammar that most resembles Standard English...

Due to emigration to the Province of Carolina, Bajan has influenced American English[5][6] and the Gullah language spoken in the Carolinas."...

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