Effort to preserve Gullah and Geechee culture moves forward

[Doondoo]

With breakneck development washing over the sea islands along the Southeast coast, a new effort is moving forward to preserve the Gullah and Geechee culture created by West African slaves and nurtured by their descendants.

About 50 people gathered in a community center in this historically black beach town on Thursday for the first of a series of meetings to discuss establishing a commission and its efforts to preserve the culture.

The work is not just for the future "but for all the Gullah and Geechee folk of the last three centuries," said Michael Allen, an education specialist with the Department of the Interior.

The effort comes after the Gullah-Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, which extends from Wilmington, N.C., to Jacksonville, Fla., was designated by Congress last year. The measure was shepherded by South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, now majority whip.

Known as Gullah in the Carolinas and Geechee in Florida and Georgia, the culture generally remained intact because of the scattered sea islands' isolation along the coast. Now those islands are as likely to have golf courses and plush upscale resorts as much as the tiny fishing and farming hamlets unique to the Gullah.



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