Spaces and places of the Black diaspora are embedded with cultural heritage, identities, experiences, and knowledge. Yet, they rarely remain visible and tangible in the landscape (in conventional senses) over time in the face of displacement, containment, and erasure.
This study analyzes the cultural landscape and heritage dimensions of the site of Igbo Landing on St. Simons Island, Georgia, as expressed through the Flying Africans folktale that originated there in 1803. Taking the Flying Africans as a proxy for ongoing Black diaspora modes of heritage and cultural expression, this research examines what processes (social, ecological, physiographic, etc.) in a cultural landscape contribute to the shaping and production of folklore and shared identities, and in turn reshape the cultural landscape. Igbo Landing offers a lens into how collective memories are rooted and can be reflected in a cultural landscape characterized by intangibility and uncertainty. The exact geographic coordinates of the 1803 event are not certain.
Today, its most commonly identified site along Dunbar Creek is unmarked and inaccessible to the public. The story of the Flying Africans has always changed and proliferated since its beginnings and continues to be re-imagined today. By exploring six variations of the Flying Africans story through landscape design and narrative, this study interprets the folktale spatially with the intention of grounding Black presence in place, rendering it accessible, tangible, and available to be experienced.