The vehicle squeaks as it pitches over the rutted road, paved only with loose oyster shells dug from shell rings deposited by aboriginal inhabitants thousands of years ago. I can hear them talking to me now. The spirits, she says, are those of her ancestors, brought here from Africa as slaves two centuries ago. That's the way it is on remote sea islands like Sapelo and in other tiny tidewater communities on the Southeastern coast. Called Geechee on the Georgia coast and Gullah in coastal South Carolina, the culture is so endangered that the federal government is trying to save it.
Nobody knows how much of the culture survives.
The Park Service has already held public meetings on the coast from Jacksonville to Little River, S. C., and is now analyzing comments from those sessions, says Park Service study coordinator Michael Allen. Many who attended talked about losing ancestral grounds, cemeteries and access to beaches and tidal creeks because of coastal development, especially on sea islands where upscale gated communities and golf courses now occupy old plantation lands. Isolated from their white owners and speaking different languages, they developed a lilting common tongue blending European and African words and structures. The people adopted the Christian religion, mingling it with African practices, including mojo, a form of voodoo. In some Gullah-Geechee communities, Christianity blended seamlessly with Muslim beliefs.