Bishop who never reached new home

Bishop James Hannington left England for his new diocese of Uganda on November 5, 1884, reaching Frere Town near Mombasa in January 1885. On arrival, he sent a letter to the Church Missionary Society (CMS) in Uganda informing them of his travel plan to Uganda through the Maasai land.
Alexander Mackay, who was heading the CMS mission in Uganda, replied warning the bishop against entering Uganda through the ‘back door’, that is through Busoga.

Unfortunately, by the time Mackay’s response reached Frere Town, Hannington had left for his mission two weeks earlier.

Hannington set off from Frere Town on July 23, 1885, with a caravan, including 200 porters and the Rev W. Jones who was ordained by Hannignton. Others included Pinto, a Goan and Hannington’s cook.

On October 8, 1885, almost three months after setting off from the coast, the bishop’s caravan reached Kwa-Sundu close to the banks of River Nzoia near present day Mumias station in Kenya.

According to the Uganda Journal of July 1940, Hannington spent two days at Kwa- Sundu, where he left the Rev Jones and part of his caravan.
“From Kwa-Sundu the bishop went with a team of only 50 porters, leaving the rest behind,” the journal states.

First contact with Basoga
On October 16, 1885, Hannington made his first contact with the people of Busoga and stayed with chief Wakoli for several days from where he went on to reach Luba’s place on October 21 near Bukaleba hill.

However, according to a letter by Mackay to the Rev R. P. Ashe, reproduced in the book The last week of Bishop Hannington’s Life on Earth published in 1886, Mackay described what one of the bishop’s porters told him. The porter managed to escape from Busoga and reached the CMS base in Uganda and met Mackay at his place in Nateete.

“More recently, a Mgwana (coast man) who had been part of the bishop’s party arrived here (Nateete) he was one of the 13 who he says were spared as being juniors,” Mackay’s letter said.

“The king’s orders, he says, was to kill them all but the Basoga saved them because they wanted them as slaves. His name is Hamis Turki. He gives the names of the seven of his companions who are still in Luba’s custody. Some escaped to Wakoli’s places and among the escapees include Ibrahim, the Bishop’s headman… I shall be glad when he is out of the country as he may be discovered here and murdered.”

Though in his letter Mackay says the king’s order was for the bishop and his team to be killed, he does not specify which king ordered the killing of the bishop and his team.

According to the Church Missionary Intelligencer of August 1887, in an interview with Christopher Boston, another member of Hannington’s caravan who survived and escaped back to the coast, Kabaka Mwanga had ordered Hannington be sent back and not to proceed to Buganda.

Boston’s account was the first detailed account of the last days of Bishop Hannington as it was recorded by the Rev A. D. Shaw from the time Hannington left Kwa-Sundu to the time his successor, Bishop Tucker, recovered his remains and took them to Namirembe in Kampala for burial.
Boston talks of the time the Bishop left the Rev Jones at Kwa-Sundu and continued with only 50 porters.

“We left Kwa-Sundu on October 12, and reached at Kwa-Mtunga the next day, he acted like a big sultan with a big dominion. On the 14th he acted as our guide, taking us to the big lake which was like an ocean. We returned and slept near the village. The next day we walked and reached Wakoli but did not see the king, on 17th we reached the lake and slept in a large town. The following day 18th was a Sunday, we remained in that same place resting.

When we set off the next morning, by afternoon we met a sultan with his soldiers on a fighting expedition, the sultan offered the bishop pombe (beer) and wanted us to camp with his soldiers but they were very drunk and the bishop chose a place in a banana grove for a night. The following day we marched up to 4pm when we reached a village where Kasoma, the son of Luba, ruled.

Luba’s place
We got up very early the following day 21st before all the other people were up and went along the main road. We were soon overtaken by soldiers from Kasoma’s at 7am. We had reached Luba’s place, there was a bazaar, and the bishop got his chair and sat near the bazaar.

After a time a messenger came and demanded 10 barrels of powder and 10 guns. The bishop said, ‘I cannot give you these I left my goods at Kavirondo (in Kenya).’

He sent one barrel and a cloth, but these were returned. The bishop then ordered the caravan to proceed.

We went a short way but the people surrounded us and clamoured for our return. The bishop at last consented to go back.
On reaching the town, the sultan presented himself for an interview.

He said, ‘You must stay here and I will send a messenger to Mwanga, if he says you are to proceed you shall go on, but if he says you are to go back then I shall send you back.”
To this the bishop agreed and then the sultan showed us a place to camp, and said you must stay here.

But the bishop said, ‘No I want to stay outside the town.’ He chose a place outside on the main road to Uganda. Here we camped as the bishop went exploring, hoping he could find a road to Uganda and thus be independent of the king’s guides.

On his return we told him that people had stolen seven guns, he said, ‘Oh! I will soon put that to rights as the king will restore them.’ He took Ibrahim, his headman, to see the king.
After sometime a runaway Swahili who was living here came and said, ‘Your master is taken prisoner, you had better take your goods up to town.’

Then there was consultation among ourselves, ‘Shall we fight or shall we not fight, we can escape.’ Others said if we fight they will kill our master, even if we get back to the coast people will say where is your master, what have you done with him.
So we were determined not to fight but each took his load and went back to the town. Here we were shown a large house and we put all our loads into it.

We all had our guns and our liberty; we walked about the town and bought food in the market, we were allowed to go and see the bishop, one by one but we could not go as a body. We took his food to him and if anyone was called by the bishop he could go and see him. We asked what our fault was that we were thus treated.

‘You have done no wrong, but it is such a strange thing for a European to come to see Mwanga by this way, all the other Europeans go across the lake. The king may not like you going this way, so you will be kept here until we hear from Mwanga,’ they told us.

Until the 28th, we were all free to walk about. We had our guns and our entire load was left in our house, nothing was taken away. Only there was a soldier always to see to it that we did not take anything away. On the seventh day, the messengers returned from Mwanga and there was firing of guns.

We asked what the news was and we were told that Mwanga had refused to give us permission to go to Uganda and that we were to go back the way we had come and that on the morrow (tomorrow) we should start. We slept well that night.

At 7am on the 29th, some soldiers came and started to bind us. Some of us struggled a good deal and then those who did had their hands tied behind and were put in wooden slave collars, but those who submitted were only tied with their hands in front.

Some Waganda whom we had not previously seen (they came with the messengers from Mwanga) came and talked to us saying ‘who gave you permission to come this way? You have come without leave and you must return at once.’

At about 2pm, the sultan came to see us, he had the bishop’s umbrella in his hand and when it rained he put it up. He divided us among his soldiers and then we were taken away, each one to a soldier’s home who had charge of us.

At 3pm, we were brought out and put together in a line and marched, taking a road leading in the way by which we had come. Before leaving the house, our guards had taken away our clothes and gave us pieces of bark cloth to wrap around the loins. We were marched a long way. It took us more than two hours to reach the spot where we halted shortly before reaching the place. We saw in front of us the bishop and his boy Ikutu who carried his chair, they were surrounded by many soldiers.

Gun fired
Pinto, the bishop’s cook, was with his hands tied behind him. We came to a place where there were many trees on one side and a valley on the other. Here the bishop was with soldiers.

We stopped within a few yards of where he stood and could see him quiet plainly. He tried to sit down but the soldiers would not let him. They began to pull his clothes off him, and then most of the soldiers left the bishop and came and stood near us.

Suddenly a gun was fired as a signal, then two soldiers who were standing on either side of the bishop stabbed him in the sides with their spears and he fell down on his back.

Continues next Sunday