God, Dr. Buzzard, and the Bolito Man: A Saltwater Geechee Talks About Life on Sapelo Island, Georgia

By Christena Bledsoe and Cornelia Walker Bailey

Book Overview

Equal parts cultural history and memoir, God, Dr. Buzzard, and the Bolito Man recounts a traditional way of life--that of the Geechee Indians of Sapelo Island-- that is threatened by change, with stories that speak to our deepest notions of family, community, and a connection to one's homeland. Cornelia Walker Bailey models herself after the African griot, the tribal storytellers who keep the history of their people. Bailey's people are the Geechee, whose cultural identity has been largely preserved due to the relative isolation of Sapelo, a barrier island off the coast of Georgia. In this rich account, Bailey captures the experience of growing up in an island community that counted the spirits of its departed among its members, relied on pride and ingenuity in the face of hardship, and taught her firsthand how best to reap the bounty of the marshes, woods and ocean that surrounded her. The power of this memoir to evoke the life of Sapelo Island is remarkable, and the history it preserves is invaluable. "A special book that reveals the unconquerable spirit of a people who, though torn from their African homeland, imprinted America with a unique culture that continues to endure." -- Ebony

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0385493770
• ISBN13: 9780385493772
• Release Date: July 2001
• Publisher: Anchor Books
• Length: 368 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.1" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Bailey has bottled a cultured in this book!

Being a life-long resident of the South Carolina Lowcountry, many of the things Bailey described in her book hit home. A fear of the otherworldly, grave respect for elders and ancestors, and contentment with life in its natural simplicity are telling traits that Bailey has really invested herself in the life she describes. The book shifts in interests as Bailey describes her experiences of reaching maturity in the natural, social, and spiritual senses, but her worldview remains consistent with the old traditions. For those who are interested in the actual speech patterns of Geechee (or Gullah) people, this is not really the book for you. There are sparse renditions of the Lowcountry/Island way of talking, but one gets the sense that Bailey was a good code-switcher; indeed, any Geechee with solid home-training would try to avoid speaking with one's home accent in public. Nevertheless, the culture that came up with the language is presented panchronologically; the very distant past is treated with the same sense of importance as the events that took place during Bailey's lifetime, and just as much gravity is given to as much as she can foresee of the unknown future. I really enjoyed this book. It gave me a sense of culture and was an excellent reference concerning the culture of the greater African-American culture overall. It is filled with lively stories, unforgetable anecdotes, thoughtful philosophizing, and hope.

A magical book to read and re-read.

Part memoir, part cultural history, part plea on behalf of a fragile culture, God, Dr. Buzzard, and the Bolito Man is as affecting as the best magic realism. You do not simply read it, you savor it and absorb it into your very soul. In the book, Cornelia Bailey, resident griot of Sapelo Island off the Georgia coast, spins the story of her growing up in that place and in a time when lives were governed equally by religion, magic, and chance. She admits us deep into the culture of her proud people and introduces us to folkways strong enough to have survived the Middle Passage and the centuries since. So it is with infinite sadness we learn that the forces of progress are rendering these same folkways as fragile as a paper-thin fig shell that washes onto the beach.It goes without saying that God, Dr. Buzzard, and the Bolito Man will appeal to cultural historians, anthropologists, naturalists, and environmentalists. The book's strongest appeal, however, will be to lovers of lyrical prose -- and to anyone who delights in the sheer magic of the way words fall on the ear and follow one another on a page. This is a special book, one that should find a home on every reader's short shelf of well-thumbed volumes that are read and referenced time and again.

A book that captures your heart.

God, Dr. Buzzard, and the Bolito Man transports the reader to the Georgia sea islands. You swear you can smell the marsh, hear the sea birds cry and taste the sweet potatoes. The writing is so pure and the people so true that you come away afraid of Mama Lizzie, furious at Bukra and proud of Grandma when she faces down the deacons. The issues the book tackles are important - ownership of the land, the insidious effects of slavery, the origins of sea island culture in Africa - but it is also a book that captures your heart. A must for anyone who is interested in people. Highly recommended.

Spellbinding in more ways than one.

This book is spellbinding in more ways than one. In this modern era of homogenized mass-market culture, it's refreshing to learn that there are still people in this country who are different and who are rich in ways that have nothing to do with money. It may have taken Cornelia Bailey half her life to discover that she was to be the storyteller of her people, but she's made up for lost time - she seems born to it, as well as being a living encyclopedia of the history and lore of one of the truly unique places and truly distinctive cultures in America. At times her words ring with a cadence and spirituality of a faraway time and setting, but neither are so remote as they first seem. Only All God's Dangers, the National Book Award winning oral history of Alabama sharecropper Nate Shaw, compares in its reduction to writing of the voice of an African-American community and way of life, but the similarity stops there. The map at the front of the book shows her home, Sapelo Island, to be at best only fifteen miles long, but it was (and still is in many respects) a whole universe to its people, and two centuries of isolation led to the development of a culture and language that is more closely tied to Africa than any other in the United States. Through all those years, thanks to their storyteller, we know that the "Saltwater Geechees" made for themselves a fascinating world with one foot on solid ground and the other deep in mysticism. The book is also first-rate social history. The story of Sapelo and its people may be a microcosm of the struggle of African-American people to cope with the ordeal of slavery and the outrages of the Jim Crow era, but it has the added turn of their being subjected to the machinations of Twentieth Century tycoons with dreams of creating feudal baronies on their secluded island. It was a war that has had more than a few casualties, and one that is far from over, with the nabobs being replaced by bureaucrats in khaki shirts and green pants, but you get the feeling that, with people like Cornelia Bailey manning the gates, the Geechees left on Sapelo will see the latest edition of "buckra" off the island like all who came and went before. Along the journey upon which she takes us we discover the beauty, mystery, and tragedy of a place and people that few ever heard of and none will soon forget. But as sobering as much of that trip is, we also get to laugh. A lot. It's clear that Ms. Bailey had a twinkle in her eye and enjoyed relating these tales almost as much as I enjoyed reading them.

Bailey touches the heart with her personal memior

God , Dr. Buzzard, and the Bolito Man carries the reader off into the world where knowing one's history, listening to folktales, and sharing a sense of humor are key to a child's up-bringing on the tiny yet proud Sea Island of Sapelo Island, GA. Cornelia Bailey's voice as a native and oral historian of one of Georgia's Sea Islands is both descriptive and informative for the adult and novice reader. As a young girl Cornelia grasps what it means to be young, old, or an outsider of the U.S. "mainland". She sees firsthand how the elders in her community, often in the midst of confrontation, overcome economic barriers and obstacles. Many hold on to their land after the destruction of the Civil War, but more importantly they hold on to a sense of pride,due to the customs, beliefs, and traditions thier forefathers brought over on the slave ships off the coast of West Africa. Cornelia shares the secrets of her surroundings among family and friends in this heartwarming memior of the Sapelo Island community.I highly recommend this book to those who know little about American and African-American history,to historians, and also to those who are a fan of the Bre'r Rabbit folktales.