Entry · catalog no. 9206
buzzard lope
/ /ˈbʌzərd loʊp/ /BUZ-urd LOHP
noun · Georgia Sea Islands and the Black South · 1880s
✓ Verified
1.
A traditional Black Southern dance and game in which the dancer spreads their arms like a buzzard, shuffles and hops around a handkerchief on the ground that stands for the carcass, while the onlookers clap and pat their thighs. It is danced in a comic, showing-off spirit.
“They cleared the floor, laid down a handkerchief, and called for the buzzard lope.”
Origin & Attribution
A dance of Black Southern communities, especially the Gullah Geechee coast, believed to have developed during slavery and possibly adapted from a similar West African dance. It is reported as first noted in Georgia in the 1880s, a date taken from a secondary note that has not been traced to a first-hand report. The dance entered minstrel-show repertoire next to the cakewalk and juba, which borrowed it from Black performers. It is documented first-hand by Bessie Jones and Bess Lomax Hawes in Step It Down (1972) and by Cornelia Walker Bailey, who describes men of Sapelo Island dancing it, in God, Dr. Buzzard and the Bolito Man (2000).
1880
Dance reported as first noted in Georgia (secondary report)
1972
Jones and Hawes document the buzzard lope in Step It Down
2000
Cornelia Walker Bailey describes it on Sapelo Island
Region of origin
West
Midwest
N.East
South
Nationwide
Georgia Sea Islands and the Black South · 1880s
Spoken by
Gullah Geechee and other Black Southern communities; Georgia Sea Island performers
$BUZZARThe Record · cultural traction
▲ Enduring146 yrs
ahead of the mainstream
15/100
peak cultural energy
Introduced to English by the culture — logged here before the mainstream caught on.
Cultural usage — the recordMainstream search interest
First used
1880
in the culture
Recorded here
2026
point of first record
Cultural energy indexed from documented usage, search interest, and citation frequency. The recorded date is the archive’s permanent point of record.
Hear it spoken
By region — how it actually sounds
@auntiereg
Atlanta, GA
@deltasoul
Memphis, TN
Contribute your pronunciation
Citations & Sources
■
Bessie Jones and Bess Lomax Hawes, Step It Down: Games, Plays, Songs, and Stories from the Afro-American Heritage (1972)
print
■
Cornelia Walker Bailey, God, Dr. Buzzard and the Bolito Man (2000)
print
■
+ Cite a sourceCultural Equity archive, 'Buzzard Lope' note (1880s Georgia); secondary
web
See also