THE
P RTAL
June 2011
The Martyrs
of Uganda
Page 6
A Recusant
Martyr
by Joanna Bogle
With Uganda once again in the news, this month we have no Recusant Martyrs, nor an
Anglican Luminary. Instead we have an account of the Martyrs of Uganda. It is an inspiring story.
They were black teenagers.
They were the leaders of
their generation. They died
for a cause that today is
deeply unfashionable. The
Ugandan Martyrs, whose
feast-day we celebrate on
June 6th, died because they
refused to renounce their
Christian faith, and because
they refused to take part in
homosexual activity. for the benefits in technology,
information, and knowledge
that it seemed to be bringing
in its wake, gave way to
hostility and fear when its
full message became clear.
Many of the pages at his court
had become Christians. They
now refused to indulge his
sexual tastes, and protected
the younger boys from his
influence.
Local people
unusually open Bishop Hannington
Here’s what happened. In the
late 19th century Christianity
arrived in the kingdom of
Buganda, the country we know
today as Uganda. Anglican
and Catholic missionaries
established centres. They
found that the local people were unusually open to
their message. The Bagandan people had a long-
cherished tradition that some day men would come
who would tell them about the One True God, whom
they called Katonga. Many were initially impressed by
Moslem traders who came their way, and there was
even greater interest when the Christian priests and
teachers arrived.
A bright future
There was some rivalry between the Catholic and
Anglican missionaries – these were not ecumenical
days – but numbers converting to both groups of
missionaries were high, and the Kabacka, the king of
the Bagandans, also seemed to be deeply interested.
Things looked set for a bright future from the
missionaries’ point of view.
Refused his sexual tastes
The first victim of his anger
was an Anglican bishop, who
had journeyed to Buganda
to visit the missionary team
there. Convinced that he was
an advance party for some
British military expedition,
Mwanga had him waylaid,
imprisoned and then slaughtered. As news of the
tragedy filtered back to the Christian community,
there was sorrow, distress, and much prayer. Mwanga
had expected anger and retaliation, but did not know
how to react. He took out his fury on one of the leading
Bagandan converts, Joseph Mukasa, who held a high
position at his court and had always been admired and
trusted by him. He had earlier reproached Mwanga
for the Bishop’s death. Mwanga now ordered him to be
killed. He was beheaded and his body publicly burned
– the first native son of his nation to die for Christ.
Later that day another Christian – one of the young
pages – was arbitrarily selected by Mwanga to die
too. The boy’s ashes were mixed with those of Joseph
Mukasa: Mwanga believed that, this way, he could
confuse the Almighty who would not be able to hear
Mukasa’s story and learn the facts about the Bishop’s
death and Mwanga’s responsibility for it.
But the Kabacka, Mwanga, was a spoilt young Charles Lwanga
man addicted to smoking hemp, and homosexual
Then came the wider slaughter. Increasingly fuelled
practices. His initial enthusiasm for Christianity, and by anger, despair, hemp and a sense that he was losing