Taking a Stand to Preserve African Culture

For over 200 years, you and your African ancestors lived on an Atlantic coastal island somewhere between North Carolina and Florida. Investors and developers begin visiting. They are interested in buying and building on your island. The possibility of your idyllic beach turning into the latest exclusive golf community or spring break destination is no longer a bad dream but a reality. What do you do?

Well if you are Gullah and live on Sapelo Island, Georgia, you form a non profit organization to preserve and revitalize your community and you call it Sapelo Island Cultural and Revitalization Society. Founded in 1993, SICARS was established to gain control over the future of Sapelo's Gullah population residing in the Hog Hammock community.

For many of us Julie Dash's 1991 independent film, Daughters of the Dust was our first glimpse into the Gullah island culture. Stretching up and down the Atlantic coastline from North Carolina to Florida, these islands include: James, Johns, Edisto, St. Helena, Hilton Head, Daufuskie, Wilmington, Pin Point, Cumberland, Jekyll, Ossabaw, Sapelo, St. Simons and Amelia Islands.

Much of the dialogue in the film, praised for its lush imagery, was in Gullah. Gullah is a West African-English Creole. Still spoken today, many of the words can be matched to ethnic groups in West Africa. Because of the isolation of these islands these African-Americans retained much of their African culture.

Mass tourism and resort development have virtually changed the face of all the islands where the Gullah people historically lived. Sapelo, off the coast of Georgia, has the last intact Gullah community. Here many of the descendants can trace their ancestry back to Bilali Muhammad, an enslaved African brought to the island in 1802. Bilali could speak, read and write Arabic and spoke French and Fulani. The descendants live in the Hog Hammock community whose 434 acres are nestled in the south central area of Sapelo.