Spreading African Hospitality By Lauren Wells
W
e moved in 2020 from Oregon to South Carolina, USA. Having experienced moves before where I put off developing friendships because, “What’s the point? I won’t be here long anyway”—I decided I wanted to dive in and build rich relationships quickly. Upon arrival, I found a book club to attend, a church for our family to try, and a mom group to check out. More than once I met someone whom I felt I hit it off with, we would exchange phone numbers, then I would reach out to invite her and her family over for dinner and I would never hear back. I couldn’t figure out what was going wrong. A few months after living there, I traveled for work and took an Uber (a car ride service) home from the airport. The driver was a man (we’ll call him David) whose accent I quickly noticed was East African. After talking for a moment, I asked, “Where are you from?” “Uganda,” he said. “I grew up in Tanzania!” I replied.
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Among Worlds
“Do you speak Swahili?” he asked. Then we chatted in Swahili the rest of the drive home. I learned that while he was from Uganda, he had also spent time living in Tanzania and Kenya. He had moved to America only six months before and hadn’t met many other people from Africa. He was delighted to have the opportunity to speak Swahili. When we pulled up to my house, I said, “Can I get your number? My husband and I would love to have you over for dinner sometime.” We exchanged numbers and a couple of weeks later he came over to watch a football (soccer) match and eat Tanzanian food. While sitting around the table eating ugali with our hands he said to my husband, “Your wife is so African! She said that she lived in Tanzania but when she invited me for dinner after just meeting, I knew she was really African. That is African hospitality. We invite people to share a meal like they’re family.”
