Peter Nazareth (85)... a life well spent ... formerly of the International Writing Programme of the University of Iowa

[Frederick Noronha]

Prof. Peter Nazareth, whose work I admired from my college days four decades back, passed away on May 22, 2026, his friend and the editor of a festschrift dedicated to him, Steve G. Ellerhoff, informed.

With his impressive anthology [Goan Literature: A Modern Reader. Journal of South Asian Literature. Vol. 18, No. 1, Winter, Spring 1983, Asian Studies Center, Michigan State University] he convinced quite a few Eng Litt students of our generation that Goan writing (in English and in translation) offered a wide, impressive if still under-recognised field for study. Those who read the anthology were amazed to see the breadth of the work he had collated, in days when the Internet was a decade away, and communication was still by air-mail and typewriter. He did this work with the assistance of an Afro-American student, Joseph K. Henry. 

He was generous with his mentoring, always encouraging and supportive, and took every opportunity to review a deserving Goa book in prominent journals like World Literature Today.  Even if it was modestly self-published (in the Goa of the 1990s), but read well.

Peter, who was close to 85, worked till 2021, and retired after even managing for a year into the pandemic. He is still remembered as a prominent Ugandan writer, and often mentioned in the context of Makerere University (once called the "Harvard of Africa") and Uganda as a whole. His contribution to the International Writing Programme of the University of Iowa, where he was Professor of English, has often been acknowledged.

His statistician-brother John Nazareth (and me, to a lesser degree) failed to convince Peter to visit Goa. This was a place where he had a small if well-informed fan following, thanks to his writing, reviewing and editing work on this region. An earlier generation of the Nazareths had migrated to Malaya, Uganda, and then, his family went on to the US, departing from Idi Amin's Uganda.

His roots were in the Bardez village of Moira.

Ever grateful for his kindness in being so ready to share his knowledge, his politeness when explaining any point, and his repeated egging on those junior to him with generous encouragement. 

Peter will be warmly remembered. FN

PS: The attached e-copy of the festschrift gives an insight into the man Peter was, and how he was known to writers from across the globe. 

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_/  Frederick Noronha  फ्रेडरिक नोरोन्या  * فريدريك نورونيا‎
_/  AUDIO https://archive.org/details/@fredericknoronha
_/  http://goa1556.in +91-9822122436 784 Saligao Goa

_/ Goanet :: 30 years of discussions. goa...@goanet.org
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[Sandra Ataíde Lobo]

Dear Fred, thank for sharing the book.

Peter always went to the point by sharing stories. I loved his messages to GBC and the way they always started "Folks....". Here is one of those sent on 13 June 2011:

"Folks,

       Two days ago, I found on the internet a brilliant analysis by a DrLori of a classic poem by Ishmael Reed, "I am a Cowboy in the Boat of Ra".  DrLori quoted the whole poem by Reed and then analyzed the poem, providing background information where necessary.  To make sure he had mentioned the full poem, I decided to check the poem in the volume New and Collected Poems by Ishmael Reed, published in 1988.  I discovered that Reed had signed it to me as follows: "For Peter, World critic and writer.  I want to be like this."  Five years later, he mentioned me in his novel Japanese By Spring, a novel I taught in both my courses in the Spring, "The Fiction of Ishmael Reed" and "Selected Global Literature". (In the novel, the character Ishmael Reed wonders what made him decide to study Yoruba and thinks that maybe it was because of me.)

        There are things writers cannot d, if they are away from "home" for some time.  They miss the day-to-day happenings and the vibrations and nuances.  On the other hand, they gain something: a perspective, a sense of the connections made between areas thanks to European colonialism.  So I lost touch with Goa--but since I was born in Uganda, "home" would more accurately be Uganda.  Specifically, Entebbe.  The land, the people, the languages, the interactions.  I recall my two visits to Goa at the ages of six and ten, and it was not exactly "home": the earth was different, as were the rivers, the fish, the people, and yet not entirely different.

          Now I live in the US, specifically Iowa. I have edited a volume of Goan literature.  I have edited a volume of criticism on Ngugi wa Thiong'o, the leading East African novelist and a leading contender for the Nobel Prize (the odds were 3:1 last year).  I have written on Andrew Salkey, a Jamaican writer, and Francis Ebejer, a Maltese novelist, and on Ishmael Reed, African-American.  I brought something to an understanding of their work and took something from them to help me understand the Goan situation and Goan literature (as can be seen in my analysis of Reed's novel Flight to Canada).

           Susan Kiguli wrote a poem a in 2001 entitled "The Place of my Birth", which she read while she was doing postgraduate work in England.  She "for Peter Nazareth" although we had never met.  Jameela Siddiqi, the novelist living in London since the 1972 Asian Expulsion from Uganda, asked her why she had dedicated the poem to me.  Kiguli told her that it was because I had never given up on Uganda.

          Ishmael Reed quoted me in his volume of selected essays, God Made Alaska For the Indians, published in 1982: "Peter Nazareth, a writer from Goa, said: 'Many black Americans seem to believe that all was fine in Africa before they were snatched off into slavery, and that they can somehow recapture the innocence of those early days by romantically embracing their African identity, as though nothing has changed in all those years.' This is a dangerous illusion."

          Peter Nazareth"

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De: goa-bo...@googlegroups.com <goa-bo...@googlegroups.com> em nome de Frederick Noronha <frederic...@gmail.com>
Enviado: 25 de maio de 2026 04:17
Para: The Third Thursday Goa Book Club <goa-bo...@googlegroups.com>
Assunto: [GOABOOKCLUB] Peter Nazareth (85)... a life well spent ... formerly of the International Writing Programme of the University of Iowa

 

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[Selma Carvalho]

I remember Peter well during his active years on Goan fora. He was a true icon of Ugandan-Goan literature. I think his books are largely out-of-print, which is a shame because quite frankly he should be studied as one would study an Orwell for political writing.

Rest in peace, Peter. Those of us who knew you, albeit online, and your work owe you a debt of gratitude.

Selma Carvalho

Author of Guts, Glory & Empire: The Epic Story of Goans in Zanzibar, 1865-1910 published by Speaking Tiger. For anywhere in the world Dogears.

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[Ben Antao]

Hi FN,

 

I admired Peter Nazareth for taking a stand on racism. Prior to going to Yales on a scholarship, he had interviewed at Leeds U where the English prof rudely dismissed him  “as not good enough.” 

 

In the US he focused on African American literature to the exclusion of white writers. He was proud of being both a critic and a creative writer. His early work of literary criticism dealt with Ismael Reed and the novels of trickster syndrome, the trickster being one of the four archetypes. 

 

At the international writing school, he encouraged and supported the Third World writers. Despite racism the US remains the best country for a writer to live in, work and prosper. 

 

Ben 

 

 

 

To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-book-club/1322545154.7843415.1779680981181%40mail.yahoo.com.

[Pamela D'Mello]

Peter Nazareth's anthology on Goan writing in English, will remain one of the best. When I first read the spiral bound book decades back, it left a deep and lasting impression at the time. It was gratifying to be somewhat involved in the anthology's reprint. 

Pamela

To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-book-club/0b2e36f8-366d-4c5f-a374-3f4aa688e074%40Spark.

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Pamela D'Mello

https://goajournal.in/

[Rosa Maria Perez]

Thank you, Frederick, for sharing this interesting book,

Rosa Maria

Rosa Maria Perez

Professora Emérita

Departamento de Antropologia 

Investigadora Integrada 

https://ciencia.iscte-iul.pt/authors/rosa-maria-perez/cv

  

https://www.iias.asia/profile/rosa-maria-perez

---

De: goa-bo...@googlegroups.com <goa-bo...@googlegroups.com> em nome de Frederick Noronha <frederic...@gmail.com>
Enviado: 25 de maio de 2026 04:17
Para: The Third Thursday Goa Book Club <goa-bo...@googlegroups.com>

Assunto: [GOABOOKCLUB] Peter Nazareth (85)... a life well spent ... formerly of the International Writing Programme of the University of Iowa

 

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[Lina Krishnan]

Good to hear about this author, Frederick; and about this anthology, Pamela. 

To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-book-club/CA%2B7dsH-vsnD8D14BibXt_YGdGDd1F2GSwD6rbL5ddrg8vOeqVQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Jeanne Hromnik]

I suppose Sandra's post says it all -- Peter's vanity, his activism, his achievement. And, underlying all, his having been considered 'not good enough' by Leeds University. Something I understand profoundly.

I was once asked (at York University in the UK, not long after Peter's time at Leeds) how I could perceive something like snow, having never seen or felt it. It was a question I resented deeply. In hindsight, I am aware of its disregard, however innocent, of the colonial environment. Of course I knew snow! I had brought up on Enid Blyton and Dickens and Jane Austen, Georgette Heyer even. I knew the English countryside intimately!

Peter did his best to resist and overcome that Leeds evaluation that ignored where 'we' came from and that completely undervalued and could not support it.

For that we thank him. May he rest in peace.

JH

To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/goa-book-club/CAP4k3%3Dg%3D790apf1bG9PX3%3DKfN71m7e%2BdrBWApv5101hYPZL8KQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Eugene Correia]

Sad to hear about Peter. Had many discussions with him when he visited Toronto.He was part of the International Goan Convention, held in Toronto, in 1981. He often visited his family in Toronto. 

Condolences to his family.

Eugene Correia

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[Frederick Noronha]

Obituary - Professor Peter F. J. Nazareth
(27 April, 1940 – 23 May, 2026)

It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of Peter Francis Joseph Nazareth at the age of 86. Peter was born in Kampala Uganda to the late P.C.S.C. Nazareth and Annie Nazareth, being the eldest of five, including siblings Ruth, John, David &amp; Rex. He attended primary school in the Entebbe Goan School and then Kololo Secondary School, Kampala.

He excelled at several subjects especially English and Mathematics, but English Literature was his first love.

Peter did his undergraduate degree (B.A. Honours in English Literature) at Makerere University, Kampala in 1963 and a post-graduate degree in English at the University of Leeds in the UK in 1965.

He cut short further studies to return home at the death of his father. Politics made it difficult to obtain a lecturer’s position at Makerere and so he took on a job at the Ministry of Finance as a Senior Finance Officer. He excelled there in many areas – even running the first national lottery in Uganda.

Peter was recognized as both an African and Goan writer, and Uganda regarded him as one of its finest literary voices. Ironically, his work at the Ministry of Finance gave him the real-life insights that inspired his first novel, “In a Brown Mantle.” The novel appeared to foreshadow the expulsion of Asians, which took place around the time of its launch. Although Peter was exempted from the expulsion, he accepted a fellowship at Yale University, followed by a fellowship to the University of Iowa, a step that later led to tenure as a professor in English and African American Studies.

Although he was an expert on the works of Joseph Conrad and D.H. Lawrence among others, but it was a course on the music of Elvis Presley that got him worldwide media attention. He was presented a key to the city of Memphis by its mayor and given a private tour of Graceland. More important to him were the numerous students whom he taught and mentored over the course of five decades.

Peter married Mary Fernandes of Iringa Tanzania in 1964. In retirement Peter and Mary settled in Ashburn, Virginia. He is survived by Mary, daughters Kathleen (Dr. Randy Eccles) and Monique (Dr. Patrick Cronin), three grandsons Christopher, Aidan and Greyson, his siblings Ruth, John, David (Lydia). He was preceded in death by his parents, brother Rex, brother-in-law Cyril Fernandes, and sister-in-law Cynthia Nazareth.