Some Lowcountry neighbors are stepping up efforts to preserve an important part of the area's history.
A multi-state panel is looking at how best to protect the Gullah / Geechee culture. The Gullah were a group of enslaved West Africans who lived along the East coast from Wilmington, North Carolina to Jacksonville, Florida.
The Gullah / Geechee are known for their unique culture, including storytelling, song, and language.
In Bluffton Monday, people who want to preserve that culture met with the commissioners from the Gullah / Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor, which was created in 2006.
"When we think about the language of our people, being brought from different parts of Africa, they could not communicate with each other. They developed, they created this language, English-based Creole language," said Commissioner Louise Miller Cohen of Hilton Head.
She's one of the leaders of the Gullah-Geechee preservation efforts, and she's trying to establish a Gullah museum.
"It took me like 3 years to really get up enough courage to really speak it, because people would talk it down. They'd say it was broken English. It was flat and country. It was backward," said Cohen.
Many others like her are also hard at work, so their history will never be forgotten
"This culture has been in this area now for over 100 years, and of course you notice this area is growing fast with resorts. It's growing fast with newcomers, and it's sort of stamping us out," said Irvin Campbell, chairman of the Native Island Business Association.
The Gullah / Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor is holding two more meetings this week to get your opinion on how best to preserve the culture.
The next meeting is Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. at St. Stephens AME Church on Main Street in Hardeeville. There's also a meeting Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. at the Bethel Baptist Church on Gillison Branch Road in Pineland.
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