Summary
A supertitle tells us that at the turn of the century, Sea Island Gullahs, "descendants of African Captives," were isolated from South Carolina and Georgia mainland, and created their own distinct African American culture. This culture retained many of the attributes of its African ancestors.
We see a man bathing in a body of water, then someone lying in bed, as a female voice, Nana Peazant, narrates, "I am the first and the last. I am the honored one and the scorned one. I am the whore and the holy one. I am the wife and the virgin. I am the barren one and many are my daughters. I am the silence that you can not understand. I am the utterance of my name."
Text on the screen tells us we are at Ibo Landing, the Sea Islands of the South, in the year 1902. A man stands next to the water chanting, then sits next to the water with a spiritual book, in prayer. We then see an African American couple in traditional turn-of-the-century clothing standing on the shores, Viola and Mr. Snead, a photographer. A boat filled with people approaches and Viola and Snead climb aboard, where Viola introduces Snead to her cousin, Yellow Mary, who has returned to the island with her lover, Trula.
Viola tells Mary that she has commissioned Mr. Snead to photograph the Peazant family in their journey over to the mainland of Georgia. "I see this day as their first steps toward progress," Viola says. Yellow Mary turns to Trula and they laugh at Viola, who looks miffed by their dismissiveness.
As we see people working on the island, the "Unborn Child," begins narrating: "My story begins on the eve of my family's migration north. My story begins before I was born." We see Eli and Eula Peazant, Nana's grandson and wife, and mother to the Unborn Child. The Unborn Child tells us that they had problems and we see the Unborn Child's Aunt Haagar, and Haagar's daughter, Iona.
Suddenly, we are back in the boat with Yellow Mary, Trula, Mr. Snead, and Viola. Mr. Snead is explaining how a kaleidoscope works, as Mary and Trula play with it and laugh. As they pass a house, Viola recalls their Uncle Spikenard, a man from Africa, who moved from the plantation to the house they're looking at. She also recalls that Spikenard told her about how the government kept "boatloads of fresh Africans" on some of the islands in the area.
Snead reminds Viola that the government banned transporting Africans for slavery 50 years before the Civil War, but she insists that they were still doing it on these islands.
We see a forest. Nana Peazant is sitting on the ground, saying, "My life is almost over, and theirs is just starting. And I'm not gonna live long enough to see what becomes of all those in my family who are born free." As we see people doing their daily household chores, Nana tells us that the Peazants are planning a trip north, but that she doesn't really approve of the migration. "I've been working on a plan," she narrates.
Iona Peazant receives a letter from her lover, St. Julian Last Child, "son of the Cherokee Nation," asking her not to migrate North, and to stay by his side. "I feel if I lose you, I will lose myself," the letter reads. The two lovers have grown up together, and St. Julian implores her to reconsider staying with him.
A group of children laugh and sing on the beach and a little girl watches and blows bubbles. As Nana Peazant sits next to her husband's grave, Eli Peazant tries to explain that just because they're leaving, it doesn't mean they don't love her. "It ain't right to tease old folks, especially your great-grandmother," Nana says to him, smiling. Eli hands Nana some herbs and she tells him that "it's up to the living to keep up with the dead," which is why she visits the grave daily. "Man's power don't end with death. We just move on to another place, a place where we go and watch over our living family."
Nana tells Eli to respect his family and his ancestors, then references the fact that Eli's wife, Eula, is pregnant with a child that isn't his, because she was raped. "The ancestors and the womb, they're one, they're the same," she tells him, urging Eli to accept his new child. Eli gets angry, yelling at his great-grandmother for urging him to make the family strong, when such a violence has been done to his wife. "When I look at her, I feel I don't even want her no more," he yells.
When Eli gets angry, Nana reminds him, "Eula never belonged to you, she married you." This does little to calm Eli down, as he gets angry about the fact that the ancestors weren't protecting Eula when she was getting raped. He tells her he used to believe in magic and spirituality, but he has to leave now.
Analysis
The film is beautifully shot from the beginning, setting the viewer down in a world that is close to recognizable, but which has rules and systems all its own. As we hear Nana Peazant introduce herself in voiceover, we see a body in bed, a man bathing, a group of people in a boat making their way down a river. The Gullah community that is the subject of the film is one that is little known to the typical movie-goer. They appear at once familiar and obscure, living so close to the American mainland, but maintaining customs that are entirely singular and profound. This air of mystery, a confluence between the familiar and the enigmatic, sets the scene for the film, pulling the viewer in.
While the Gullah community of Ibo Landing has created an entire self-sufficient culture of their own, their independence and individuality are threatened by pressure to move to the mainland, where they can fully assimilate with American culture. The pressure to blend in with traditional American culture is not just coming from the white community in Georgia, but also from within the Peazant family. Returning to Ibo Landing, Viola Peazant, who has moved to Philadelphia and become a Christian, is eager to see the other members of her family go to the mainland and make "their first steps toward progress." The Peazant family members who are connected to their island and culture must contend with patronizing logics of this kind.
Even if the Peazants have managed to live away from the rest of America to retain a certain kind of cultural dignity, the remnants of slavery can still be found on their islands. On their boat trip, Viola informs Mr. Snead that while he believes that Americans stopped bringing African slaves over 50 years before the Civil War, she knows for a fact that they kept Africans on the islands for longer than he supposes. Thus, the islands are both a reminder of the violent institution of slavery and a kind of in-between place, a place where African culture has been able to survive in a way it could not on the plantations.
A major theme in the film is ancestry and history, and the characters seek to feel a connection with their pasts, while also not getting left behind by history. Nana Peazant is the family elder, and the keeper of history, visiting the grave of her husband every day to commune with his spirit, and trying to convince her family not to leave the island where it has set down roots. As she tells Eli, "It's up to the living to keep up with the dead," and the planned migration of the family threatens to disrupt this thread connecting the living to the dead. The film asks the question, how do human beings connect with their pasts and their families, and in what ways is time circular?
The pain and trauma experienced by the younger members of the Peazant family threatens this spiritual connection with the past and with their ancestors. While Nana insists that the living have a connection with the dead, and that people can find some comfort in the fact that the ancestors are looking after the younger generations, Eli is not so convinced, as he has recently suffered a traumatic event. After Eula is raped on the mainland, Eli is not so convinced that he is being protected from evil, and he yells at Nana, "When we were children we really believed you could work the good out of evil." After such a traumatic loss as a rape, Eli does not feel so sure that there is a greater power protecting him. At the center of the film is a conflict between tradition and a spiritual disillusionment that stems directly from the violence of society.
