Social worker and home economist Constance R. Nabwire is best known for her highly illustrated books on African cooking and recipes and cultural connections. “Nabwire” is a female name of ethnic origin from southeastern Uganda and southwestern Kenya and is traditionally associated with someone who was born at night. “Bwire” is the male version.
In the early 1960s, after her high school education in her native Uganda in Buddo (Budo), Constance Nabwire traveled to Spelman College for girl students in Georgia, where she eventually earned a BA in sociology and psychology. His studies and upkeep were funded by the African Student Program for American Universities. Later, she transferred to the University of Minnesota, where she graduated with a master’s degree in social work.
By chance, Constance Nabwire was placed in a room with future Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction (1983) and National Book Award winner (1983) Alice Malsenior Walker at the historically prestigious black Spelman College in Atlanta. They would become close friends, intrigued and impressed with each other, and changed forever.
Evelyn C. White writes about their academic relationship and interaction. The talented scholar Nabwire pointed out, but was not surprised that Alice skillfully wrote a superior essay on renowned Russian literary authors. It was also important to Nabwire that Alice was quite different in many ways from the other Spelman students. Nabwire recounts that Alice was well versed in foreign affairs, her outlook on international affairs was a rarity at Spelman, she went to great lengths to befriend African students, and she didn’t dwell too long on “Friday night dates” as she did. the other students. In fact, Nabwire felt so privileged and enriched to have been placed with Alice, whom she considered intellectually stimulating and engaged with the world (White: 73-74).
Walker and Nabwire were so close that they shared items like clothing, and together they went to intriguing locations and other settings to experience them practically for themselves. An illustrative incident of racism and discrimination in the white church moved Nabwire to tears and other forms of psychological unease. White conveys Walker’s views on white churchgoers in Eatonton, Georgia, where she was born in 1944, and on Nabwire’s reaction when the two were denied entry to a white church in Atlanta. Alice remembered that white people who went to church in Eatonton were segregated. The day that Alice, in the vaunted pink frilly dress (purchased by Nabwire), ventured out with Nabwire to church services in Atlanta would be quite worrying. Evelyn White would notice Nabwire’s reaction.
“The…white missionaries had come to Uganda and taught…it was important to worship God…read the Bible…pray.’… ‘When Alice and I tried to get into…the church … they closed the door in our faces. I didn’t understand… for months, I did nothing but cry'” (Blank: 161).
Nabwire and Walker shared “the pink dress,” which Walker described as “divine” (White: 76).
Walker, along with her entire women’s council and Nabwire, would intimately and emotionally venture out to pay their respects and bring flowers to the uncovered grave of a Walker ancestor. Nabwire’s impact on Walker was so profound that he would later visit Uganda. Alice describes Nabwire as “…a wonderful person…wise and gentle beyond her years and…most of the other girls in…the school” (Walker 2010). Alice also recounted the tomb incident while speaking at the Organization of African Writers, a conference held at New York University in 2004.
The ancestral grave recently discovered in Georgia was that of Alice’s great-great-grandmother, Sally Montgomery Walker (1861-1900). To formally pay her respects, Walker returned to the grave with flowers, and among her companions was Constance, “a wonderful woman…who made me care deeply about Africans and African women” (Goodman 2004). Amy Goodman recorded more of Walker’s speech regarding her visit to Uganda in the mid-1960s: “…I went to Uganda…to understand how Constance had been…produced by…a country that before Idi Amin it was very beautiful…calm…green” (2004).
Those who accompanied Alice to Sally Walker’s grave also included her entire women’s council and another Belvee friend, most of whom had stories of pain and suffering. At the graves they wept, and the poetic Walker summed it up: “We watered those graves with our tears… happy to do so” (Goodman 2004).
Intrigued by Nabwire, Walker ventured further into understanding African culture and society, reading further into the writings of renowned African writers. Passages on his website offer his views, reactions and readings on Africa; and also comparisons with black America. The passages are part of Walker’s September 13, 2010 speech delivered as the 11th Annual Steve Biko Lecture at the University of Cape Town. Walker had realized comparatively that while racism ran deep in the United States during the 1940s and 1950s, he delved with intense curiosity into what Africanness was, given that “Africa was shrouded in … deep mists of distortion, racially motivated”. misperceptions, blatant exploitation and lies” (Walker 2010).
Alice noted that Africans were “cheerfully despised, considered savages”. Also at Spelman College, reinforcing her important friendship with Nabwire, whom she cherished like a sister, Alice admired the African song “Nkosi Sikeleli’Afrika” which exuded “that sound of such humility, love, devotion and trust” (Walker 2010). Beyond people, countries, and culture, Walker’s interest in Africa encompassed the environment, so he became interested in other aspects such as rainforests and animals. Through the works of such African literary giants as Elechi Amadi, Camara Laye, Ama Ata Aidoo, Buchi Emecheta, Bessie Head, Okot p’ Bitek, Ngugi wa Thiong’o, and Ayi Kwei Armah, Walker revealed that she “began to find a intellectual and moral consideration bordering on [and] often embodied the most amazing depth” (Walker 2010).
On her visit to Uganda in 1964, Alice Walker was amazed by the courtesy, the peace, the friendliness, the greenery, the reception and the patience.
“Uganda… which Winston Churchill refers to as… ‘Japan’ of Africa, due to… the courtesy of the people… friendliness. This… a colonialist view, but… also it was a land of…greener hills and valleys…there…a palpable feeling of peace and patience with the stranger” (Walker 2010).
The names of the people in the Ugandan family where Alice Walker stayed are not mentioned, but they lived near Kampala, the capital.
“I was taken in… by a Ugandan family who took me in… cared for me… dispelling… any feeling I… had that I would not be recognized as one of Africa’s children” (Walker 2010) .
But as Melanie L. Harris explains, although Walker admired Ugandans for their compassion and care, and remained in contact with Nabwire after transferring to Sarah Lawrence College, “the depths of poverty and the impact of colonialism caused Walker to wander … [to Africa] hard to bear” (Harris 2010: 34).
The renowned and academically debated short story, “Everyday Use,” is part of the collection of short stories written by Walker. The collection titled “In Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women” was first published in 1973. “Everyday Use” references the Deep South of the United States, Black family and social transformation, and Uganda.
In the story, the beautiful Dee, who is older than her shy and disfigured sister Maggie, who has kept in deep southern tradition with her mother, Mama Johnson, visits her home after a long stay in an urban setting. The introverted and fearless Dee sees herself as a transformed woman who now embraces modernism and black radicalism. At the start of her visit home with a burly fellow Hakim, Dee utters the greeting “Wa.su.zo.Tean.o!” Apparently, this is Walker adapting to writing “Wasuz’otya nno/ Wasuze otya nno?” which in Luganda means “How did you sleep?” In Buganda, it is the most used morning phrase that is equivalent to “How did you sleep?”, “How was your night?” or “Good morning.” Sometimes the greeting is abbreviated as “Wasuz’otya/ Wasuze otya?” While in Uganda, Alice Walker must have often encountered the native morning greeting. In addition, the greeting carries a question mark, in addition to the exclamation mark that is attached in the story.
In “Everyday Use”, Dee also states that she is no longer Dee and has Africanized her name to Wangero Leewanika Kemanjo. In Luganda, “Wangero” can be a personal or place name, meaning “the one (or the place) of stories”. In some of Walker’s accounts, her friend Constance Nabwire is referred to as Constance Wangero. Is it a typo or was Nabwire also known as “Wangero”? Also, Wangero Hill is in Buganda, so Walker may have visited or known the place or name and later used it in his tale.
The closest African name to “Leewanika” is Lubosi Lewanika, who was the king or paramount chief of Barotseland, which is the western part of present-day Zambia. Lewanika reigned from 1878 to 1916, and was tricked by Cecil Rhodes in 1890 into giving the land over to British protection through the British South Africa Company. Still, Lewanika would visit London in 1902, where he was embraced and attended the coronation of King Edward VII. Rhodesia was named after the aggressive and notorious colonialist Rhodes, and would later be renamed Zimbabwe (after the legendary “Great Zimbabwe”) just weeks before Robert Mugabi became the country’s first black prime minister in 1980.
“Kemanjo” may well be an African name, or an adaptation of one.
Works Cited
Good man Amy. “Alice Walker on the ‘toxic culture’ of globalization”. Democracy Now! October 2004.
Harris, Melanie L. Gifts of Virtue, Alice Walker, and the Ethic of Women. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
Walker, Alice. “Coming to See You Since I Was Five: An American Poet’s Connection to the South African Soul”; 11th Annual Steve Biko Lecture. September 2010: http://alicewalkersgarden.com/
White, Evelyn, C. Alice Walker: A Life. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2004.