Yoruba, Nigeria Drum

Robert Montrose Waite (1928–2015) and Joan Berry Waite (1933–2015) were lifelong advocates of cross-cultural understanding whose experiences spanned continents, disciplines, and the arts. Born in Sierra Leone, West Africa, to Jamaican and African American missionary parents, Robert returned to the United States at ten and came of age in Depression-era Cleveland. After earning degrees from Case Western University and New York University, he rose through the corporate ranks to become the first Black vice president of a Fortune 10 multinational corporation. In the mid-1950s, he married Joan Berry, a Canadian cultural anthropologist and singer educated at Sarah Lawrence College and the University of Chicago. A descendant of African Americans who escaped slavery via the Underground Railroad, Joan devoted her career to the study and celebration of African and Afro-American art, culture, and music. 

Motivated by the decision to not be held back by racism and denied professional opportunities in pre-civil rights era New York City, the Waites relocated to Nigeria in 1961. There Robert co-founded and managed West Africa’s first postcolonial indigenous electronics company in Ibadan, in partnership with Chief Anofi Guobadia of Benin. Robert details this experience in his autobiography Haunted by Africa. During this period, Joan taught French, collected Yoruba masks and sculptures, and even performed on Nigerian television. Upon returning to the United States in 1965, Joan continued to teach, sing, and lecture widely, performing with ensembles of New Jersey, including Return to the Source and the Jubilee Singers of Westminster Choir College. Joan co-founded the Afro-American Educational Center of Northern New Jersey, for which she received WCBS-TV’s Black History Month “Fulfilling the Dream” award in 1995. Robert was recruited by ITT, where he directed global operations as a marketing executive. On his 80th birthday, shortly after retiring as Vice President of Natural Resources, he was honored with a Benin bronze bust from Chief Anofi Guobadia, commemorating his Nigerian name, Omowali, meaning “the child has returned home.” Together, the Waites built a remarkable collection of African art, reflecting their personal experience and intellectual and cultural passions.