All Roads Lead To Kampala - The Land Of African Saints
- Category: The Comrade
- Date 30-05-2010
- 362 views
Every year in June, Uganda is rife with gyrations of joy in memory of daring youths who challenged the authority of a potent king and were put to death for their rigid association with the Christian faith. The 22 Uganda martyrs, beatified in 1926 and canonised in 1964, became the largest number of individuals ever to be presented and entered at once into the ranks of sainthood in Christian history.
The canonisation of the Uganda martyrs had many firsts. They were the first Africans to be bestowed with the saintly crown in modern times. It was the first time that ‘negro’ churchmen assisted a Pope at a Pontifical Mass. Cardinal Laurean Rugambwa of Tanganyika, Africa’s first and only black cardinal at the time, played the role of deacon and assisted Pope Paul VI with Mass. It was also the first time ever that women voices were heard singing at a Pontifical Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica, Rome. These were voices of female members of the Ugandan choir.
Very few Ugandans believe that the young Baganda who disobeyed their king’s orders were traitors, willing to assist foreign invaders in destroying nation’s heritage – and for that, many of them were burnt alive. A commanding majority, however, look to the martyrs as a source of inspiration and role models of Christian commitment to a point of giving up their own lives. Regular church teachings and hymns indicate that the seed of Christian faith in Uganda was watered and nourished by the blood of the young boys, who were to become the martyrs.
The missionaries imposed tough requirements on their converts. They branded all native religious behavior and practices as satanic and unwanted. Joining their faith entailed an obligation to break away from the old life style and adjust to new moral and religious standards. The boys who embraced the new teaching, therefore, became 'rebels' in the eyes of the king for they shifted their loyalty from native customs to a new religious system. Thus they ought to be punished for two reasons: to pay for their ‘crime’, and to discourage other people from following in their footsteps.
The boys were killed slowly and in various ways. Some were beheaded; others speared, chopped into pieces, castrated, and burned alive. All this, nonetheless, produced results that were totally different from what the king intended to achieve. There are tales of martyrs who walked to their deaths singing hymns and praying for their tormentors. Strange as this may appear, such incidents inspired most onlookers who instead began to seek instruction from the remaining Christians. Very soon, the initial small group of converts multiplied and spread far and wide. Today, Uganda has the largest percentage of professed Christians of any nation in Africa.
Returning from a field trip in eastern Uganda last Friday, The Comrade came across throngs of pilgrims walking on foot towards Kampala to attend the Uganda Martyrs Day celebrations held annually on 3rd June. During the week, hundreds of people crossed into Uganda’s boarders from Sudan, Kenya, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The Kenyan Catholic group from Nyeri, Nairobi, Nyahururu, Nakuru, Eldoret and Bungoma parishes set off from Kocholia Parish on May 3, with Mzee Chepkurui, aged 86, as the oldest member of the group.
Locally, Ugandans will turn out in thousands to attend the national celebrations, and almost every diocese has flagged off pilgrims walking hundreds of kilometres to the Uganda Martyrs Basilica at Namugongo, near Kampala. In the past, some pilgrims have trekked from northern Tanzania but The Comrade does not have details of their participation in this year’s celebration.
Like last year, local dailies have indicated though that Africa’s latest saintly candidate, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere will still be at the centre of the Uganda Martyrs day celebrations at Namugongo and Mama Maria Gabriel Majige, wife of the prominent politician, will be among prominent Tanzanians attending. Are you one of them?
By Venansio Ahabwe
Source: The Comrade, the Guardian on Sunday