Ancestral Memories: The Tut Language Revival
Journaling on the revival of a secret, dead language created by African-Americans.
The discourse surrounding Tut centers on secrecy and gatekeeping. Some believe that since Tut was secretly created by enslaved Africans and spoken by Afro-Americans as a coded cultural tradition years after slavery, it should not leave the community. That it should only be spoken and learned by African-American descendants of slaves. They believe that with so much African-American culture co-opted by people outside of the diaspora, it is understandable and encouraged to gatekeep this language.
Outside of the US, African descendants of slaves say excluding them from learning Tut is erasure, insensitive, and denies history. Even though the transatlantic slave trade brought them elsewhere, they have a right to learn this language. They imply physical location does not erase the psychological and spiritual connection to the enslaved people who reached American soil.
A Coded Language
My push-pull relationship with social media felt worthwhile when I watched dozens of African-Americans on TikTok talk about Tut. On 18th century plantations, enslaved Africans created a language called Tut, or Tutnese. They did this in secret, of course. The language helped enslaved people learn to read and write. It was a means for organizing without the physical and symbolic heavy hand of white plantation owners.
Tut is now considered a dead language, but African Americans are experiencing ancestral memories. They are remembering Tut again. They're learning Tut for no other reason than to take pride in their heritage and gently remind themselves of their history. The language's revival triggered loooong discourse sessions that asked who the language belonged to and if one group could own a dialect.
A Cultural Connection
History lessons I received skipped the part about ethnic diversity among African slaves. I only stumbled across articles describing the various languages spoken on plantations in my late twenties. The reading felt like a wake-up call; I mean, of course, there would be a colorful array of dialects spoken on the plantation. Enslaved peoples’ native land spanned the vastness of Central and West Africa. They needed to become bilingual and trilingual to survive the plantation, especially, to connect with one another.
I remember seeing snapshots of Tut and Gullah Geechee speakers on TV and in movies when I was a kid. I would hear family members passively mention these African-American languages in conversation. They spoke about the dialects as if they weren't aspects of our culture we could actively embrace, but something that was quite literally dead. As if too much time had passed and it was too late to rekindle the relationship between our bodies and language. As if the descendants of its creators weren't living and breathing despite all efforts to bury them.
I don't know if anyone can legally declare ownership of Tut, but the historical and cultural relevance within the African American experience is unquestionable. It’s an important example of language serving as a reflection of the people who constructed it.
I like to think about what African-Americans are saying through the act of seeking Tut teachers in 2021. It created a bond during the transatlantic slave trade and has circled around to work its magic again. Shouldn't we dissect the diaspora's desire to revive the language the way we've examined the possibility of ownership?
We could benefit from shifting our focus to Tut's origin and purpose: Vocabulary for reflecting shared experiences and an intellectual defense against oppressive power structures. In short, a means for the community to communicate in terms we can all understand and feel.
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+Resources
(2021, August 26) The Gullah Language of African America, a story. African American Registry.
Hannah-Jones, Nikole. (Published 2019) The 1619 Project.
Angelou, Maya. (1969) I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. New York: Bantam Books.
McIlwain, G. (1995). Tut language. San Francisco, CA, San Francisco 94121: Tut Language Co.