Paper 2

Lisa Lin
Professor Brumitt
College Writing
19 November 2012

Family is Deeply Connected to Land

Throughout history, it is evident that the roots and traditions of family are important. In a society rich with culture where family and land is first in the minds of everyone, the people are happier. In the views of the people of Sapelo island, living in a community surrounded by loved ones and close friends is comforting. Everyone understands each other more because they all face the same hardships together. Cornelia Walker Bailey provides a look into the lives of the Sapelo island people in her novel God, Dr. Buzzard and the Bolito Man, and how living on the same land for more than nine generations has brought the people together like a family with mutual respect and trust, and then how all that changed when they were forced to move. The move changed their culture and it is a serious problem for them because they cannot live like how they once did. A culture should be kept and preserved because every culture is unique and when that is taken away, it is impossible to get back. With disappearing land rights and culture for the people, many things also changed like food and religion but more importantly, traditions were lost and families were less close together.

In the Sapelo culture, maintaining a deep sense of family is crucial because they have already separated from their homeland, Africa. Even though it has been more than nine generations since their ancestors came to America, they still try hard to connect to Africa. Cornelia explains that when her ancestors first came here, they could not adapt and accept the white man’s ways so they even brought over their own crops to farm. The people still view Africa as their home, which is where their heart and family is, and try to connect Sapelo to it, “The climate on Sapelo was hot and humid and buggy, just like it was in West Africa. There were tidal streams and marshes similar to those they knew in Africa. So, they would have taken a deep breath and said, 'Okay this reminds me of home. Maybe we can go on,' and found the strength to make a new beginning" (Bailey 2). From this it is apparent that they had tried their best to use this new land to rebuild the traditions of African culture to make it feel like home again.

Then as time passed through the generations, they had made a new family that is deeply connected to their new land, just like how it was back in Africa, but that did not last. When they were at the Bluff, they were even able to carry out most of the same traditions like playing bolito, a gambling number game, saying dawn as dayclean, practicing root, also known as black magic, and dancing the buzzard lope. Change came quickly and Cornelia was there to witness it. Suddenly being forced to move from your home and land would make anyone upset but it was especially hard on the people of Raccoon Bluff. Moving to Hog Hammock proved that what they had on Raccoon Bluff was something special, that they had a strong pride in family and culture, and that it was something that the people on Hog Hammock did not have. The land there was different and they could not connect to it, and as a result, their sense of family faltered. Cornelia describes how they wanted to keep onto their identity, “On the North End, people were very independent and they wanted to have as little to do with buckra as possible. They wanted to keep their own identity. They’d work hard for it and they held onto it” (Bailey 113). This quote shows that they are at a dangerous time and could possibly lose their identity as a family if they lost their land. As their land rights are threatened, so are their ways of living.

As a group of people live in the same land for many generations, a way of living is established and changing it would be abrupt and bitter.  For the Sapelo people, living in Raccoon Bluff separated them from the rest of America. They cultivated the farmland, so they could provide for themselves without the help of others. As a family, everyone would help farm so the land was a very important part of their lives. After moving to Hog Hammock, the land was different and so they farmed less. The other people that also live there were different too; they were more accustomed to living the white man or the buckra way, and did not think too much of it. They viewed it as right, and that the buckra people were more prestige, and so being around them gave them that feel too. So with the different views, many older folks would not trust each other, “He’d cuss about the men he worked with. He’d rant and rave about them telling buckra everything, trying to get a few extra bucks in their paycheck, and them stealing things” (Bailey 114-115). Here Cornelia explained her father’s situation and what he goes through. Also, her mother would be talking about her situation at work and how the oyster factory got shut down due to the cheating and the dishonesty of the Hog Hammock women. From these experiences, it shows that her family is becoming detached as they focus more on problems and not on family. An explanation could be that there is a perceived difference in the people because of the land. At the Bluff, people farmed more and everyone relied on the land, and at Hog Hammock, the land is less used and people have actual jobs that pay money.

As time progresses, their problem increases as the Georgia state takes over most of the island, forcing the people to live on only a small area of land, and even that is threatened with the introduction of high taxes. Without secure land rights, the family structure of the people are disappearing. In the past, they had land to cultivate and farm, so the whole family could work together towards the same goal: to provide for themselves. Now without a nice land to farm, the family would be working separately, and not have the same closeness to the land. Farming the land is not the first thing on their minds now that it cost them thousands of dollars a year to live on the land. One landowner on Sapelo told a reporter that, “Her family has more than four acres of property and faces more than $6,000 in taxes. Like most, they have appealed. Still, they are not going to let go of the land. "It’s like this," she said. ‘People like me don’t sell their property.’ (Kim Severson). It is amazing that they still believe that they can hold onto their land with the government threatening them but they are starting to live life like a stereotypical American. Their culture is slowly being lost and more and more young people are leaving the island in search for a better life and jobs. With the high taxes, the people on Sapelo would have to focus more on that and less on the actual family.

As the Sapelo Island people are being introduced to a new way of living, the money economy, they had to adapt to it. In the past, since they could provide for themselves on their land, they did not need services that they now are being provided. The land was their livelihood; they depended on it for food, housing, medicine and everything else. Parting with the land they had lived on for over nine generations was like parting with family. Even with the hardships, Sapelo people still held tight, “Sapelo’s inhabitants guard their island with determination. They want to preserve the pristine natural environment and their agricultural heritage” (Linda Lange). For my ancestors and my parents the land and family relationship was so strong as well. They farmed every day and having a family was all due to having people farm the land. But as time passes, it was not that harsh, because there was a huge amount of love between family members and land. The relationship between my parent’s family members in the past was great and strong because everyone loved and supported each other even though no one could afford meat. Nowadays, meat and other common food items that were once thought of as impossible to get, is plenty, but the family love my parents had decreased. Today for me, I know that my parents love me, but I always feel like my family could be a lot closer if we lived somewhere where the land meant more.

As times have changed, so has the value of land and family. Cornelia Walker Bailey’s insightful novel, God, Dr. Buzzard, and the Bolito Man has shown how powerful the relationship is between land and family. Having secure land rights is essential for them to preserve their culture and families. Land and family is something we take for granted nowadays, and many of us do not care if we lose it. For the Sapelo people however, it was very valuable because everything they did and used came from the land. They maintained tradition and culture through their deep connections to the land. With this deep connection, family love is also deeper and more meaningful.

Works Cited

Bailey, Cornelia, and Christena Bledsoe. God, Dr. Buzzard, and the Bolito Man: A Saltwater Geechee Talks about Life on Sapelo Island. New York: Doubleday, 2000. Print.

Lange, Linda. “Saving Sapelo; Scenic Georgia Island’s Residents Preserve Culture, Share with Visitors.” (n.d.): n. pag. Proquest. Web. 15 Nov 2012.

Severson, Kim. “Taxes Threaten an Island Culture in Georgia.” Web. 15 Nov. 2012.