“I try to be as much as I can like an African griot. The griot kept the oral history of the tribe, as it had been passed down for thousands of years. He was in charge of remembering everything. He was a storyteller…The stories weren’t just for entertainment. Like the ones I tell, they have a purpose.”1
Cornelia Walker Bailey
Cornelia Walker Bailey (1945-2017) was an author, activist, matriarch, and griot who was born and raised on Sapelo Island, Georgia. Her memoir titled God, Dr. Buzzard, and the Bolito Man: A Saltwater Geechee Talks About Life on Sapelo Island, Georgia is part of the foundation of this website. In the book, she tells stories about her childhood, her family and her beautiful island of Sapelo.
Bailey also talks about the importance of spirituality to her and the Geechee community on Sapelo. Probably one of the biggest shortcomings of this website is that there was not time to delve into the importance of spirituality in Gullah Geechee culture. The title of Bailey’s memoir—God, Dr. Buzzard, and the Bolito Man—gives a glimpse into this importance. God refers to the Christian God, though Sapelo Island also has a history steeped with Muslim influence. Dr. Buzzard is another name for voodoo, because some islanders on Sapelo and throughout the Sea Islands still preserve aspects of West African vodun. The Bolito Man refers to luck, because that is something that Bailey says her island and all Sea Island inhabitants need.
Red Peas Project
Check out the video below to watch Cornelia Walker Bailey explain the Sapelo Island Geechee Red Peas Project, her own concept for restarting the economic vitality of Sapelo Island, enticing younger generations of Geechees to stay on Sapelo and preserve their culture and heritage there.2
Cornelia Walker Bailey passed away in 2017 at the age of 72, and she was honored by many different people and organizations she had impacted. NPR’s tribute called Bailey “A Giant of Gullah Geechee Culture.”3 Melissa L. Cooper, an associate professor of history at Rutgers, grew up spending summers on Sapelo—where her mother was born—and knew Bailey all her life. She spoke about the legacy that Bailey left behind:
“… she was as a community leader. She was instrumental in making all of us more aware of both the history of black Sapelo and the fight that islanders faced in terms of holding onto their land inheritance… She was both – in word and deed – an advocate for Sapelo’s people, Sapelo’s history and Sapelo’s future.”4
Melissa L. Cooper, historian and friend of Cornelia Bailey Walker
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Footnotes
- Cornelia Walker Bailey with Christena Bledsoe, God, Dr. Buzzard, and the Bolito Man: A Saltwater Geechee Talks About Life on Sapelo Island (New York: Doubleday, 2000), 324. Available here.
- “Welcome to our Farm,” Georgia Coastal Gourmet Farms, accessed May 7, 2022, http://georgiacoastalgourmetfarms.com/index.html.
- Alexis Diao, “Remembering Cornelia Walker Bailey, A Giant Of Gullah Geechee Culture,” Food History & Culture, NPR, October 25, 2017, https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/10/25/560093667/remembering-cornelia-walker-bailey-a-giant-of-gullah-geechee-culture.
- Shelia M. Poole, “Sapelo Island historian, community leader Cornelia Walker Bailey dies,” The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, October 18, 2017, https://www.ajc.com/lifestyles/sapelo-island-historian-community-leader-cornelia-walker-bailey-dies/CloZzpoF6SrKF0fAjDYNtK/.