Ugandans were a spiritual people even before the first British missionaries and the Catholic Missionaries of Africa – also known in French as the Pères Blancs, or the White Fathers – arrived on the scene in the 1870s. Perhaps that openness to faith is why so many became Christians, some of whom died for their beliefs.
Father Alexander Muddu, pastor of St. Kateri Tekakwitha, Yorktown, gave a presentation on the Ugandan Martyrs June 3 at his parish, the feast day of St. Charles Lwanga and Companions, Martyrs. Father Muddu is passionate about sharing their inspiring stories; he has been serving in our diocese since 2016 but comes from the Archdiocese of Kampala, Uganda. The presentation included a sampling of Ugandan foods for those in attendance.
During Father Muddu’s presentation, he shared about the history of Uganda. In the Buganda kingdom in what is now Uganda, they believed in a three-tiered system of gods, he explained.
In the mid-1800s, Islam “took over traditional worship” in Buganda, but the prominent religion in the country is now Christianity, comprising about 82% of Uganda’s population. Catholics make up the largest Christian group at 37%.
Uganda is in east Africa and is about 93,000 square miles, roughly the size of Oregon. There are many cultures, Father Muddu said, because there are more than 50 tribes and dozens of languages. The official languages are English and Swahili.
Father Muddu said the Catholic Church in Uganda was born during the papacy of Leo XIII. In 1879, he “assigned the whole area of the vicariate of central Africa, and the evangelization of Uganda to the White Fathers.”
Between 1884 and 1887, King Danieri Basammula-Ekkere Mwanga II Mukasa sentenced many Ugandan Christians to death.
It was during that period that the group known as the Uganda martyrs died. Mwanga returned from hunting one day and could not find any of his servants. He began to search angrily for them. He discovered his favorite servant had gone with a “known Catholic” to catechetical instruction at Bulange-Mengo, an official administrative building of the Buganda kingdom.
When the servant returned that evening, Mwanga, furious, stabbed him in the chest with a spear and then summoned his executioners to take him away and kill him, Father Muddu said. Mwanga then went to the home of one of his senior palace officials and burned the man’s books on Christianity.
That evening, Mwanga saw two of his Anglican servants and ordered their execution. Mwanga then ordered the arrest of all Christians, both Anglican and Catholic, on the palace grounds, and the palace gates were locked so no one could escape. He sentenced 22 Catholic and 23 Anglican men to death by burning. Some of the people sentenced had been Catholic for less than a year. They were later named saints: St. Charles Lwanga and Companions, Martyrs of Uganda.
Several miracles have been attributed to the Ugandan martyrs. In 1941, two nuns who were caring for another sister who eventually died of bubonic plague contracted the illness as well, and doctors thought they were beyond hope. However, they were cured after a novena and after relics of the martyrs were placed on the nuns.
“These ancestors of faith, who had barely 10 years of discipleship, knew who Jesus was and who he is. Because they knew him, they could place all of their faith, hope, and trust in his Word, embracing the supreme form of witnessing in Christ,” Father Muddu said.
“For us followers of Christ, death is not the end. We should not fear those who threaten to kill us, for they are unable to kill our souls,” he added.