140 years of Christianity and the uncelebrated milestones
On June 30, 1927, Church of Uganda celebrated its golden jubilee. Although the Church planned to commemorate the centenary with a nationwide celebration in 1977, the festivities didn’t take place due to the unfortunate event that struck the country, writes Faustin Mugabe.
June 30, 1877, was a historic day for Uganda. On that day a retired British naval officer-turned evangelist, Lt George Shergold Smith, and a clergy sent by the British Church Missionary Society (CMS), Rev C. T. Wilson, reached the Rubaga palace, then the capital of Buganda Kingdom.
The two were the first Christian missionaries to arrive in what would become Uganda.
Immediately after arrival, they started spreading Christianity to locals who had for centuries worshipped Lubaale and Emandwa, among other gods. Two years later, in 1879, the Catholic missionaries also arrived in Buganda.
Lt Smith and Rev Wilson arrived after Henry Morton Stanley, a British 2nd Lt and deserter of the American Civil War who was avoiding arrest, who came to Africa under the guise of looking for British explorer David Livingston who “was lost”.
Stanley reached Buganda in April 1875 and invited Christian missionaries to Uganda.
During his interaction with Kabaka Muteesa I, Stanley attempted to convince him to convert to Christianity.
This was after Stanley helped Muteesa defeat the Bavuma who had for years given Buganda a hard time.
The Bavuma never reconciled with the Baganda after the war and the Buvuma islands on Lake Victoria only became part of Buganda Kingdom after the 1933 agreement.
On December 13, 1877, Lt Shergold and his fellow British missionary O’Neil were killed by the Bavuma in a fracas at Ukererwe Island on Lake Victoria in what was seen as vengeance against the Europeans who helped Buganda humiliate them.
After the Buganda victory, according to Stanley’s book, Through the Dark Continent, Stanley and Muteesa I became good friends with Muteesa asking for more assistance once Stanley had gone back home.
When Stanley arrived at Muteesa’s palace, he found a French explorer, Lt Col E. Linant de Bellefonds, who had arrived in Buganda from Egypt having been sent by Col Gordon to assess the situation in Buganda and the Kabaka’s opinion of the Europeans entering his country from the north.
Stanley and Linant de Bellefonds were astonished to meet in Africa. Meanwhile, Stanley had convinced Muteesa to accept the spread of Christianity in his kingdom.
And so, Stanley on behalf of Muteesa, with his consent, wrote the famous letter that invited Christian missionaries here and gave it to Linant de Bellefond who was travelling back to Europe via Egypt. The letter was published in the London Daily Telegraph newspaper of November 15, 1875.
Besides the missionaries invitation letter, Stanley also gave Linant de Bellefonds another to take to his bosses in England which in part read: “I have indeed undermined Islamism so much here that Mtesa (sic) has decided henceforth, until he is better informed, to observe the Christian Sabbath as well as the Muslim Sabbath and the great Captains [Chiefs] have unanimously consented to this”.
To affirm his act, Stanley further stated: “Colonel Linant de Bellefonds is my witness that I speak the truth and I know he will collaborate all I say. The colonel though a French Calvinist has become an ardent well-wisher for the Waganda (sic) as I am”.
Immediately the Catholics arrived, competition between Catholics (White Fathers) and the Protestants (CMS) to convert Ugandans to Christianity started, with the White Fathers in the lead.
Baganda converts then helped in the spread of Christianity to other parts of Uganda and beyond. For instance, Yowaana Kitagana, originally from Sese Islands, converted many Bakiga to Catholicism while Apollo Kivebulaya did the same for the Protestant church in western Uganda and Belgian Congo (now Democratic Republic of Congo).
By the 1920’s, Christianity had spread throughout Uganda except for Karamoja sub-region due to their hostility towards foreigners. It was not until the 1930’s that the Verona Fathers from Italy became the first Christian missionaries to reach Karamoja.
Uncelebrated milestones
On June 30, 1927, the Protestant Church in Uganda celebrated their golden jubilee. During the celebrations, an epigram in memory of the Protestant martyrs was erected at Namirembe Church.
It reads: “Their name liveth forever. This tablet is erected by the diocese of Uganda on the occasion of its jubilee June 30, 1927.”
Although Church of Uganda was planning to commemorate the centenary in a nationwide celebration in 1977, the celebrations didn’t take place due to the unfortunate event that struck the country: The death of Archbishop Janani Luwum.
Although president Idi Amin persuaded the church to carry on with the celebrations as earlier planned, the festivals went on but they were a low-key affair because the country was still in mourning.
The centenary celebrations were marked by the ground-breaking ceremony on June 30, 1977, for the construction of the yet to be finished Church House, renamed Janani Luwum House, on Kampala Road.
This was followed by a fundraising campaign that suffered a stillbirth in spite of its launch at the City Square with president Amin as chief guest.
Meanwhile, Bishop Cyprian Bamwoze was elected chairman of the sub-committee set up by the House of Bishops to lead in the production of the book titled A Century of Christianity in Uganda: 1877-1977.
The church had planned to sell centenary badges among other souvenirs to raise more than Shs100 million needed for the completion of the Church House project.
And when the Catholic Church was also planning to celebrate 100 years in February 1979, the war that toppled Amin was raging around Mpigi, about 30 kilometres from Kampala City.
ABOUT UGANDA MARTYRS
The Uganda Martyrs are a group of Anglican and Catholic converts to Christianity in the historical kingdom of Buganda, now part of Uganda, who were executed between January 1885 and January 1887.
They were killed on orders of Mwanga II, the Kabaka of Buganda. The deaths took place at a time when there was a three-way religious struggle for political influence at the Buganda royal court. The episode also occurred against the backdrop of the “Scramble for Africa” – the invasion, occupation, division, colonisation and annexation of African territory by European powers.
A few years after, the English Church Missionary Society used the deaths to enlist wider public support for the British acquisition of Uganda for the Empire. The Catholic Church beatified the 22 Catholic martyrs of its faith in 1920 and canonised them in 1964.
