Written piece
We Stitch Like This Too
Daphine Namagembe
Uganda
About this piece
A moment in church where my kitenge dress, stitched using what my grandmother taught me in Uganda, connected me to a visitor from Kenya.
My grandmother stitched kitenge, the African wax print fabric, in our home village of Lukaya, central Uganda. I learned to stitch carefully and made my kitenge dress. While in church wearing it, a visitor from Kenya sitting next to me said, “We stitch like this too,” running her finger along the seam of my kitenge dress. The dress did the talking, stitching kitenge connecting us.