Tracing Mary statue’s journey from Rome to Rubaga Cathedral

What you need to know:

  • Arrival. On November 20, 1897, the White Fathers docked at Bugonga in Entebbe.
  • The statue was brought to Rubaga and put in a church.
  • The Blessed Virgin Mary was placed where Rubaga Hospital currently stands.
  • It remained there until 1924, Faustin Mugabe writes.

In front of Rubaga Cathedral in Kampala stands a tall statue of Mary the mother of Jesus. The statue that has been there for 60 years faces the Mengo Palace, which also houses the Twekobe, the Kabaka’s official residence.
The statue at Rubaga was made in Rome and was brought to Uganda in 1897 by the White Fathers.
At the peak of the wars between pagans and Christians in the Roman Empire, Africa became a sanctuary for Catholicism.

This was recorded by two scholars, Norbert Brockman and Umberto Pescantini, who in 1990 authored a book titled A History of the Catholic Church.
“By the 3rd Century, the centre of Catholic Church life had shifted to the African cost [North Africa]. Rome was the home of the Popes, but it was still predominantly pagan. North Africa was the only area in the west (plus Armenia and Asia Minor in the east) to have a majority of Christians by 400 AD. While Rome was the governing centre, Africa was the theological heart of the church,” they wrote on page 34.

Because of that, Africa was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary (BVM) by the Vatican. And when the earliest Catholic preachers crossed the Mediterranean Sea to North Africa, around 100 AD, they brought with them the statue of Mary as the defender of peace in Africa. But the most prominent one is in Algiers, Algeria, brought in 1840.
After the execution of the Uganda martyrs and the persecution of Catholics in the following years, a group of White Fathers was sent from France via Algiers in North Africa to reinvigorate the priests who had retreated from Uganda to Tanganyika.

In Uganda, Catholics had been humiliated after the January 24, 1892, Rubaga Hill battle. During that battle, Protestants commanded British Captain Frederick Lugard fought and defeated Catholics and torched the church, houses and St Mary’s, the first seminary established in Uganda in 1891 to educate Catholic catechists.

The journey to Uganda
Once the mission to bring the statue of Mary was commissioned, a group of 16 White Fathers and Brothers, originally from France, set off from Algiers, in early 1897 and docked at Dar es Salaam in present-day Tanzania.
One of them was Brother Hermann. In memoirs reproduced in a Catholic monthly magazine, Musizi, of December 1955, Hermann wrote: “In August 1897, we were in Bagamoyo [Tanzania] preparing to start off the five-month safari to Uganda. We were 16 priests and Brothers of which six were destined for Uganda and 10 were to remain in Tanzania.”

“On August 15, 1897, we conducted a Mass and dedicated out journey to the BVM to help us. The following morning we started our journey. We were divided in groups of 100 people. Each group was commanded by a priest; assisted by two deputies.”

“We had a lot of luggage which included gifts, food, and clothing for us and those [priests] in Uganda. Among the heavy luggage was the trunk containing the statue of the BVM. In October, we reached Mwanza Port and rested for two weeks waiting for the arrival of fleet of 35 boats Kabaka Mwanga had sent to receive us.”
The statue of Mary was loaded onto a boat and off they sailed to Uganda through Lake Victoria.

Surviving a storm
While in the middle of the lake, the fleet of nearly 100 boats encountered a heavy storm. For more than two hours, the sailors struggled with the boats.
“Meanwhile, everyone was praying loudly to the Almighty God and BVM for mercy. On that day, only two boats docked at Bulya Menvu. We thought that others had died. But the following morning the rest of the boats also arrived led by one which had the statue of Mary,” Brother Hermann writes.

“We thought that the statue of Mary had been destroyed by water which entered the boat. But on opening the box, it was intact. We all went to our knees and sung Ave Maris Stella.”
From Bulya Menvu, they sailed north via Ssese Island where they were received by monsignor Streicher.

On November 20, 1897, they docked at Bugonga in Entebbe. The statue was brought to Rubaga and put in a smaller church that was built after the big one was burnt in 1892. The BVM was placed where Rubaga Hospital currently stands. It remained there until 1924 when it was transferred to Nnalukolongo Church where it remained until 1956.

The statue returns to Rubaga
After losing the January 1892 Rubaga battle, Catholics were from then marginalised by British colonialists as well as Buganda Kingdom officials.

For instance, in 1952 when the first political party, the Uganda National Congress, was established and later Buganda feudalists started the Mabegga Wa Nnamulondo (behind the throne) ‘political party’, Catholics were again left out, which forced them to start the Democratic Party in 1954.

As Kabaka Edward Muteesa returned from exile in October 1955 where he had been since November 1953, it was thought that his return would bridge the Mengo-Catholic church divide. Unfortunately, it instead worsened the situation.

As Catholics in Buganda felt that the subjugation was too much to bear, they resorted to divine intervention, the Blessed Virgin Mary.

Since 1954, the statue of Mary had moved from Nnalukolongo and was being kept behind Rubaga Church, facing the Nateete, Nnalukolongo side.

It is also claimed that the banana plantation surrounding the statue once caught fire and while everything else was burnt, the statue survived unscorched.

And so, it was removed and put in front of the church where it stands today.