Missionary religious sister reflects with joy on her 70 years of serving in Uganda, US

INDIANAPOLIS (OSV News) -- At 92, Sister Demetria Smith is the embodiment of gentleness and joy.

Those qualities shined during a recent Mass at St. Augustine Home for the Aged in Indianapolis as she renewed the religious vows she first professed 70 years ago as a Missionary Sister of Our Lady of Africa.

"I'm just very thankful to God for all that has been," said a beaming Sister Demetria at a reception after the Mass, surrounded by family and friends.

There is much "that has been" in a vocation that took her from Indianapolis to Europe to Africa to Washington and back to Indianapolis.

Twenty-six of those 70 years were spent overseas. More than 16 of those years were spent ministering as a nurse and midwife in the East African country of Uganda -- even during the dangerous and deadly eight-year reign of dictator Idi Amin, whom history dubbed the "Butcher of Uganda."

Her seven decades in service to the Lord stem from an upbringing as the second of nine children in a family "very much" rooted in Catholicism.

Sister Demetria was born in Indianapolis on Aug. 7, 1932. Her parents, Archie and Bettie Smith, named their daughter Catherine.

The Smiths grew up near St. Vincent Hospital -- then located near downtown Indianapolis -- where Archie worked as a chauffeur.

It was through the Daughters of Charity sisters who operated the hospital that Archie was introduced to -- and was later baptized into -- the Catholic faith.

"When he met my mom, she fell in love with the faith, too," Sister Demetria told The Criterion, Indianapolis' archdiocesan newspaper. "We prayed the family rosary every day, and we (kids) all had 12 years of Catholic education."

While attending the former St. Bridget School in Indianapolis, she felt the call to serve in Africa.
"They didn't say much about Africa in school back then," Sister Demetria recalled. "They just showed us one little photo (in a geography textbook) of two little boys in an African town on the equator, and I said, 'Oh, I want to go there and help the people in Africa!'"

But she also wanted to be a nurse, a desire that evolved during her years working at St. Vincent with one of her sisters washing dishes. In her large family, Sister Demetria said, "it was expected that you would make a contribution to the family."

As she came to know the women religious and learn about their work, "I knew I wanted to be a nurse," she said.

After graduating from Catholic high school in Indianapolis in 1950, Sister Demetria took nursing-related classes at the former Indiana University extension in Indianapolis for two years while working as an assistant in the surgery unit at St. Vincent.

Then she became acquainted with the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa because they came to the hospital "trying to recruit nurses to become sisters and serve in Africa."

The religious women were staying with the Little Sisters of the Poor and her father drove the sisters there from the hospital. On the way, he told them his daughter was always talking "about going to Africa" and "wants to be a nun," said Sister Demetria.

So she went and talked to them. They kept in touch, telling her, "Don't forget us -- we're praying for you!'"

Beginning in 1952, Sister Demetria served her postulancy and novitiate with the order in Belleville, Illinois, and professed her first vows there on Aug. 15, 1954.

She spent her first two years as a religious sister earning a practical nursing license in Ohio.

In August 1956, Sister Demetria went to Lyon, France, for a three-month crash-course in French, the official language of the religious order. She would also become fluent in Lagunda and Swahili, two languages spoken in Uganda.

Sister Demetria then spent a year at the motherhouse in Algiers, Algeria, in North Africa, receiving further religious formation and practicing her French.

In January 1958, Sister Demetria was ready to begin her dream of serving in Africa as a nurse.

"I was supposed to go to Rhodesia," a region of south-central Africa now divided into the countries of Zambia and Zimbabwe, she said. "But at that time apartheid was strong there, and they wouldn't give me an entry permit."

Sister Demetria was sent to Uganda, where she served as a nurse and midwife for more than 16 years.

"You wouldn't believe it, but we had a community there that was just straight up the road from where those two boys were standing in that picture I saw" in her grade school textbook, she marveled.

Sister Demetria professed her final vows in Uganda on Aug. 15, 1960.

When she first arrived in Uganda, Sister Demetria was the only Black woman among the sisters in her community there.

"You would think being Black like the people in Uganda would make them happy, but I was not received with open arms at all," she recalled. "They said, 'You're Black like us -- what do you think you can do for us?' Because they thought sisters were only white, and white people were the ones with the money. They really didn't trust me for a while.

"But eventually they did come to trust me, and they were wonderful to me afterward."

They even gave Sister Demetria a special nickname.

"The Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa were known as the White Sisters because of their all-white habit," she explained. With a broad grin, she added, "The people started calling me the Black White Sister."

From 1962-1969, Sister Demetria was in England and the United States earning degrees as a registered nurse and as an accredited midwife.

Returning to Uganda, she worked at various hospitals as a nurse, training other nurses as well.

"Then came my public health nursing," she said, when she and other registered nurses in her community "traveled out to villages and set up temporary clinics along the roadside. The roads were dusty. Sometimes we'd travel half a day in a lorry (truck) to get where we needed to go. On a busy day, we'd help as many as 200 people."

Common issues included malaria, typhoid, pneumonia, dysentery, malnutrition, measles, snake bites, "and of course delivering babies," a service that brought her true joy, Sister Demetria said.

On Jan. 25, 1971, Ugandan army commander Idi Amin seized government power through a military coup.

"He was a big tyrant," said Sister Demetria. "It was a difficult time. He came into power just brutally. It just became so dangerous there."

In 2003, when CNN announced the death of Idi Amin, the news organization called his reign "one of the bloodiest in African history -- earning Amin the nickname 'Butcher of Uganda.'"

The New York Times noted that his "ruinous eight-year reign of terror encompassed widespread killing, torture and dispossession of multitudes." Estimates of the number of people killed during Amin's dictatorship range from 80,000 to 300,000 as he perpetrated genocide against certain Ugandan tribes.

"Soldiers would raid villages at night, so the villagers would come to our community's boarding school to sleep then go back to their village in the morning," Sister Demetria said.

The soldiers came "several times" into her community, making it particularly dangerous for Sister Demetria with her dark skin.

"This was when you really saw that the people really cared for me," she said. "They would hide me because if I was seen, there would be no time to explain, 'She's not one of the tribes.'"

Sister Demetria continued to minister in Uganda until early 1978, when Americans in the country were advised to leave. She returned to Uganda later that year and served there through 1982.

Back in the U.S., Sister Demetria spent two years working in the publications department of the Missionaries of Africa, an order of priests and religious brothers with headquarters in Washington. She then served for a decade promoting the mission of and vocations to the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of Africa.

In 1995, she returned to Indianapolis, allowed by her order, she said, to work for the archdiocesan Office of Missions, which enabled her to take care of her aging parents.
In that role, Sister Demetria visited archdiocesan schools to raise awareness and funds for missions in developing countries.

"I just shared my story of life in Africa and asked them to help the poor little children around the world," she said. "And children are so generous, they are so good."

In September 2005, she spent a week in Mississippi, where "there was an urgent call for nurses to go and help people displaced by Hurricane Katrina," she explained. "I went and was assigned to help assess their medical needs."

"The area was so devastated," she recalled, shaking her head at the memory. "It was like a Third World country -- no water, no electricity. My heart especially broke when elderly people would tell me they had nowhere to go, no idea what was going to happen to them."

In 2008, she started working as a receptionist at the archdiocesan pastoral center until she retired in 2013.

When asked what words come to mind when reflecting on her 70 years as a Missionary Sister of Our Lady of Africa, Sister Demetria responded in song with her characteristic joy: "He's been so good, he's been so good, the Lord has been so good to me!"