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Pacfic Northwest Hero: Lwanga Llwanga
How many of us have such a love of our sport that we would fashion our own tennis racket out of planks of wood, and use banana fiber and sisal plants to make tennis balls and a net? Meet Lwanga Llwanga of Seattle, Washington.
Llwanga was around 10 years old and living in his native Uganda when he first saw tennis being played at a private, all-white tennis club quite a distance from his small village. He and his friends were intrigued by the game played on ground that had been groomed to a beautifully smooth surface, and here were people dashing back and forth to hit a small bouncing ball over a net. The boys approached the court to watch, but hweren’t able to for long because the players chased them away fearing perhaps that he and his friends might steal one of their errant tennis balls or commit something much worse. Undeterred, Llwanga returned the next day, only to be chased away yet again. “I wonder even to this day, how some humans can be so inhuman!” remarked Llwanga.
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| Llwanga Luanga© USTA |
Fascinated by the game, he decided to make his own equipment and learn the sport with his friends. He fashioned paddle-like racquets out of firewood and then used fiber from banana trees for balls. Later to get more bounce in the tennis balls, he used the sap from rubber trees. Then he wove a rope-like net from the fibers of sisal and banana plants.
Flash forward 60 years and Llwanga is still making it possible for people to play the sport he loves, but now he’s doing it in the inner city. Since he arrived in Seattle in 1968, he’s been part of a small group of players who’ve made it their mission to bring tennis to African-Americans in Seattle’s Central District and Rainier Valley. In 1969, Llwanga teamed with Joyce Trader, originally from Jamaica, to form CATA, Central Area Tennis Association, a group that organized play for African Americans at public courts around the city.
At about the same time, Llwanga started coaching junior high and high school tennis teams. Over the next 25 years, he coached tennis and other sports in Shoreline, Bothell, Edmonds, and Seattle. Llwanga’s four children picked up their father’s love of tennis, and his only daughter Anna played number one singles at Meadowdale High School.
A self rated 3.99999, Llwanga is no slouch on the tennis court. He’s a lifetime member of the USTA and the American Tennis Association (ATA). The ATA was founded in 1916 to promote tennis among African-American players, and it hosts national tournaments all over the country. Llwanga has played USTA Team Tennis for many years, and he’s participated in many local tournaments in singles, men’s doubles, and mixed doubles. In 1999, he won the men’s 65 singles title at the Pacific Coast Championships, the regional ATA tournament in Portland, Oregon.
Llwanga has also been a key member of the Emerald City Tennis Association (ECTA), a group that was formed in 1989 to promote competition and camaraderie among African-American and other multicultural tennis enthusiasts in the Seattle area. He’s held a number of positions with ECTA and is currently Vice President. In its first few years ECTA served over 100 members who participated in league play and even sent teams to ATA tournaments as far away as Tennessee.
The current ECTA goal is to develop junior tennis, to “grow the next generation of tennis players,” as Llwanga puts it. ECTA, partnering with the Amy Yee Tennis Center, provides tennis instruction for elementary and high school students from St. Edward, St. Therese, Mt. Zion, Garfield, Cleveland High School, and members of the First AME Church. As of April 2003, over 75 students have attended these free after-school clinics. In addition to on-court instruction, Llwanga also provides free math tutoring to students at any level. If he needs to hit tennis balls with kids to get them to hit the books, that’s what he does. Education is the tool that makes it possible for people to achieve “the good life, prosperity, and happiness,” as Llwanga puts it.
It’s easy to see why the Pacific Northwest chapter of the USTA gave Llwanga the Outstanding Volunteer Service Award for 2002 for his long-time service to the local tennis community and for his contributions through ECTA.
Llwanga’s generosity, however, doesn’t end with his work in Seattle. In 1994, he returned to Uganda to build Lwa-Kisa, a school for children in his home village. The school currently has about 300 students ages five to 15. About a third of the students are orphans, and many are children of parents who died from AIDS.
Llwanga plans to return permanently to Uganda, but it won’t be to retire. He’ll teach in the school that he built and he’ll also help introduce students to tennis. He plans to add sports facilities including at least two clay courts. No one will chase the children away from the courts, and they won’t have to make their own rackets, balls, or net.
In Luganda, Llwanga’s mother language, “lwanga” is derived from a word that means “maker.” Llwanga is a maker of the highest order, a person who’s made wonderful things happen and continues to make it possible for children to learn not just about tennis, but also about educating themselves and improving their lives. As Llwanga says, “We live but once: make it count.”