But the island's one-of-a-kind culture is kept alive with activities and festivals that highlight ancient arts such as spear throwing, tobogganing, dancing and body painting.
Baba Sa'eed, who has been dancing with his arms and his upper body as he sits by the altar, goes rigid and begins speaking in what he later says was an African dialect, punctuated by phrases in broken Arabic.
Her dancing and choreography experience in the 1980s for stars like Cyndi Lauper put her body under a microscope and in competition with many thin peers.