NEWS & PUBLICATIONS

© DIEDRA LAIRD/THE CHARLOTTE OBSERVER

   Although tourism provided many opportunities, it has become a double-edged sword. On the one hand, "Gullah business people benefit from tourists who spend money in their establishments," says Michael Allen, education specialist for the National Park Service. But the rapid growth brought on by people moving into historically Gullah regions has attracted many developers interested in securing property cheaply, then reselling to newcomers, or what the Gullah call "Come yah" ("Come here" people).

   "My father always told us that God ain't making no more land, so we have to hold on to what we have," says Cornelia Bailey, author and resident of Georgia's Sapelo Island. "Developers buy from us for peanuts and sell for caviar."

   Along with development pressure, perhaps the biggest threat to the Gullah community is the skyrocketing increase in property taxes brought on by the rising value of real estate. "The masses can no longer afford to own their own homes and land [in our communities]," says Richard Habersham, president of the Phillips Community Association.

   The tightly woven communities of yesterday, where multiple generations of family members surrounded each other in family compounds, are becoming a thing of the past.

   "Culture, history, and land go hand in hand - when one part is lost, the other two components are weakened," says Jesse Gantt, a local real estate investor with ties to the community. "Nowadays, the younger generations don't have the connection to land as did their parents and grandparents, so they see no problem with selling [their property] or losing the land to tax sales." Cornelia Bailey of Sapelo Island recalls the words of her father and his generation: "A poor man ain't got but God, his word as an honest man, and a piece of land. But the loss of land is usually evidence that [he hasn't kept his promise] to hold on to the family land. And all that's left is God."

   Fortunately, legislation now pending in Congress would help to preserve the unique culture of this area. The Gullah/Geechee Cultural Preservation Act would establish a culture heritage corridor and create a commission to help federal, state, and local authorities manage it. The bill authorizes $2 million per year for ten years to carry out the work of the commission and calls for one or more interpretive centers within the heritage corridor. The legislation was passed by the House of Representatives last fall but languished in the Senate; Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-SC) reintroduced the legislation this year.

"Gullah is not a dead culture, but it is an endangered one," says Alan Spears, NPCA's associate director for diversity. "That's why NPCA has strongly supported development of a Gullah theme heritage corridor that would empower these people to share their stories and establish some measure of control over the public face of their heritage." 

   The idea isn't to preserve the Gullah/Geechee culture in a jar, on a shelf, for outsiders to come and see, but rather to help a vibrant, creative culture continue to flourish in a time and place where the value of real estate can't always be measured by a mortgage lender.

   After all is said and done, the saving grace for the Gullah may be the very same characteristics that brought them through to this point-the ability to adapt and make do with what they've got. One constant for the Gullah people has been the water-its ebb and flow a metaphor for their struggles. Their burial grounds, food cultivation, subsistence, baptisms, and other customs intricately connect the people to the water in ways that remain today. The story of the Gullah began with the change from one continent to the other, from one side of the water to the other. And they will no doubt continue to thrive as their ancestors, ancient people who have built empires, stood the course of time and continue as examples of words their predecessors lived by: "All shut-eye ain't sleep, and all goodbye ain't gone."

Veronica D. Gerald is a professor of English at Coastal Carolina University
and owner of Ultimate Gullah, a gift shop in Conway, South Carolina.