Traveling to culturally significant locations: Sapelo Island Food Studies Trip (6pts)

 

I had the best time traveling to Sapelo Island with my Food Studies cohort at the end of last semester. As a Food Studies scholar, a significant part of my responsibilities includes traveling to Sapelo twice a year to help with the sugar cane harvest in the Fall and Spring. During my most recent visit, I had the chance to work closely with Maurice Bailey, who is known as the island's resident griot and CEO of Save Our Legacy Ourselves (SOLO). Because the culture of Sapelo is slowly dwindling as families leave the island and corporations attempt to encroach on the land, we help Maurice harvest "heirloom crops" to enrich the opportunities for descendants on the island. Outside of just sugar cane, we learned about Maurice's future efforts to plant Geechee red peas, sour oranges, and indigo. In talking with Maurice, his passion to preserve his culture through agriculture was crystal clear as he continues to work tirelessly to keep Sapelo's status as the largest intact Geechee community across the barrier islands. 

At first, working across acres of land seemed very intimidating, but as a volunteer for the Spelman Victory Garden I tried to apply my experience from my service to what we endeavored to do at Sapelo. I tried my best to be open to using new tools and to jump headfirst into unfamiliar experiences. I am so grateful that I remained open-minded because I had the chance to meet Nik Heynen, a professor at UGA and now professor of Black Food Geographies at Spelman. While conversing with Dr. Heynen, I learned more about the significance of Sapelo and the richness of Maurice's ancestry. I was so shocked to hear that Maruice's 5th great grandfather, Bilali Muhammad, brought the earliest known Islamic text to the Americas from his capture in Guinea in 1803 -- I had no clue what type of history I would encounter when I initially decided to go to Sapelo. Maurice continues to walk in the footsteps of his ancestors, and his story inspires me to do the same - Jayda Hendrickson