Social worker and home economist Constance R. Nabwire is best known for her heavily illustrated books on African cuisine and recipes, as well as the cultural connections. "Nabwire" is a…
In the early 1960s, after completing her high school education in her native Uganda in Buddo (Budo), Constance Nabwire traveled to the all-girls student Spelman College in Georgia, where she…
By chance, Constance Nabwire was paired with future Pulitzer Prize-winning Fiction Prizewinner (1983) and National Book Award winner (1983) Alice Malsenior Walker at the black, historically-renowned Spelman College in Atlanta.…
Evelyn C. White writes about their relationship and academic interaction. The academically talented Nabwire noted, but was not surprised, that Alice would deftly write a superior essay on renowned Russian…
Walker and Nabwire were so close that they shared items such as clothing and visited fascinating locations and other environments together to practically experience them for themselves. An incident that…
"The white... missionaries had come to Uganda and were teaching... it was important to worship God... to read the Bible... to pray." ... "When Alice and I tried ... to…
Nabwire and Walker shared "the pink dress," which Walker described as "divine" (White: 76).
Walker, along with her entire women's council and Nabwire, ventured out in an intimate and emotional way to pay respect and bring flowers to the discovered grave of an ancestral…
The ancestral grave recently discovered in Georgia was that of Alice's great-great-grandmother, Sally Montgomery Walker (1861-1900). To pay her official respects, Walker returned to the grave with flowers, and among…
Also among those accompanying Alice to Sally Walker's grave were her entire women's council and another friend, Belvee, most of whom had histories of pain and sorrow. At the graves…
Fascinated by Nabwire, Walker ventured more into understanding African culture and society, reading more into the writings of renowned African writers. Passages on her website offer her opinions, reactions and…
Alice noted that Africans were "joyfully despised, looked upon as savages". Also at Spelman College, Alice admired the African song "Nkosi Sikeleli'Afrika," which reaffirmed her important friendship with Nabwire, whom…
On her visit to Uganda in 1964, Alice Walker was amazed at the courtesy, peace, kindness, greenery, welcome and patience.
“Uganda... referred to by Winston Churchill as... the 'Japan' of Africa because of... the politeness... the friendliness of the people. That...is a colonialist view, but...it was also a land of...greenest…
The names of members of the Ugandan family where Alice Walker lived are not mentioned, but they lived near the capital, Kampala.
“I was taken in… by a Ugandan family who protected me… cared for me… dispelled any feeling… I had… that I wasn't recognized as one of Africa's children” (Walker 2010).
But as Melanie L. Harris explains, although Walker admired Ugandans for their compassion and caring and remained in touch with Nabwire after transferring to Sarah Lawrence College, "the depths of…
The acclaimed and academically debated short story Everyday Use is part of the collection of short stories written by Walker. Titled In Love and Trouble: Stories of Black Women, the…
In the story, the beautiful Dee, older than her disfigured and shy sister Maggie, who has stayed in the deep Southern tradition with her mother, Mama Johnson, visits home after…
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…
The African name closest to "Leewanika" is Lubosi Lewanika, who was the king or supreme chief of Barotseland, the western part of present-day Zambia. Lewanika ruled from 1878 to 1916…
"Kemanjo" may well be an African name or an adaptation of it.
Works Cited
Gutman, Amy. "Alice Walker on the 'toxic culture' of globalization." democracy now! October 2004.
Harris, Melanie L. Gifts of Virtue, Alice Walker, and Womanist Ethics. London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010.
Wanderer, Alice. "I've Come to 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: One Life. New York: WW Norton & Company, 2004.
#Everyday #Alice #Malsenior #Walker #Influence #Constance #Nabwire #Uganda
Thanks to Jonathan Musere