We Do Not Need More Martyrs in Uganda
- Category: Faith
- Date 03-06-1998
- 1989 views
June 3rd has remained an important day in Uganda ever since the canonisation of the Uganda Martyrs by Pope Paul VI in 1964.
It is the day set aside to reflect on the life and fate of the men, Catholics and Anglicans, who were executed for their Christian commitment.
Every year, at such a time, the country is rife with gyrations of celebration in memory of the sons of the soil who triumphed over secularism by shedding their blood. Uganda is said to have produced the biggest number of Christian martyrs worldwide.
However, the attitude of people, at least in Uganda, towards martyrdom is varied. To the majority of the Ugandan Christians, the status of the Uganda Martyrs is enviable. The martyrs were loyal to Jesus Christ to the extent of giving up their lives. Christians believe that it is the martyrs’ blood that watered and nurtured Christ’s church in Uganda.
The Uganda Martyrs’ faith in and love of Jesus Christ were selfless and unreserved. Thus, they are really our Christian models, and their actions and behaviour were heroic. Even President Yoweri Museveni, in his address to the Pope, John Paul II in March 1993, appeared proud to welcome him to ‘a land that produced African saints’. Innovative
On the other hand, some people look contemptuously at the exaltation accorded to the Uganda Martyrs. They regard them as traitors; people who betrayed their African identity and religion, defied their king Kabaka Mwanga - and embraced a foreign people’s magic, thereby degrading their African heritage.
Yet again, not all Christians are unanimous about martyrdom and sainthood. Some Christians, especially of the emerging churches, do not recognise the position of the saints in the Church. They teach that faith in Jesus Christ is all a Christian needs.
The Uganda Martyrs have, for all intents and purposes, significant lessons for Ugandans of all times and walks of life. The circumstances leading to their massacre were shrouded in confusion and violence. It is such violence that Ugandans should deplore, which has hitherto bedevilled our motherland.
This violence, which has characterised our history, is a product of pride, selfishness and highhandedness. Some of the people we look up to as heroes do not deserve that designation; they may be leading tragic lives stemming from their insidious duplicity.
In the same spirit, the people we view as traitors or criminals do not actually deserve isolated condemnation. Being on the unpopular side today, they may either represent our society’s overall frailty or equally emerge as eventual idols.
When all is said and done, however, we might all have to sympathise and empathise with the men who died as Uganda Martyrs, considering their circumstances. They could have acted out of naivety, ignorance, stubbornness, conscience, or God’s design depending on the attitude of each of us towards martyrdom.
It is curious that the missionaries, who presumably understood Christianity much better, often fled for safety whereas their pupils, the new converts, faced danger squarely in the face? T.S. Eliot, in a play, Murder in the Cathedral, expounds martyrdom in the Christian sense.
Writes Eliot, ‘...we do not think of a martyr simply as a good Christian who has been killed because he is a Christian: ...... We do not think of him simply as a Christian who has been elevated to the company of Saints: ... A Christian martyrdom is never an accident, for Saints are not made by accident. Still less is a Christian martyrdom the effect of a man’s will to become a Saint....”
He adds, “A martyrdom is always the design of God.... It is never the design of man; for the true martyr is he who has become the instrument of God, who has lost his will in the will of God, and who no longer desires anything for himself, not even the glory of being a martyr.” (Part 1, Interlude: The Archbishop preaches in the Cathedral on Christmas morning, 1170)
It is apparent, from the foregoing, that no Christian can or should strive for martyrdom and genuinely be called a martyr, however covertly or overtly devout. Only God appoints His own saintly martyrs from those who surrender themselves completely to Him.
Yet, when God appoints a martyr, it is a man who carries out the mission and kills the martyr. Martyrdom being the design of God, therefore, why do we blame one that kills the person who is destined to become a saintly martyr? In Uganda, for example, the Church rejoices in her martyrs - she needed them and the Kabaka[1], as an agent, killed them.
The problem, however, arises from the fact that whenever vice clashes with virtue, and a virtuous man is destroyed, it provides a serious pointer to the society that what is desired (virtue) is threatened, and everyone should get concerned.
The death of martyr indicates that the society’s moral fabric needs repair and serious maintenance. It is a warning bell against vice and violence; an invitation to tolerance on the part of the leaders, loyalty on the part of the subjects, ultimately creating harmonious relations with God and one another. The martyred saints are therefore sacrificial models for all.
Uganda has celebrated Martyrs Day for decades but it appears far from having learnt lessons from the martyrs. Vice overshadows virtue, so our country is characterised by violence in form of wars, robbery, torture, injustice, and corruption.
All these are heightened by hypocrisy and greed. Uganda needs perfection, not more martyrs.