Many of the pilgrims to Namugongo walk to the place, sometimes from as far as the ends of Uganda like Kabale, West Nile, Karamoja and even outside Uganda like Kenya. They can walk up to 400km for several consecutive days.

This year, the Anglican Church added its voice to the Catholics in mobilising walking pilgrims from the Ankole region to Namugongo. This was the first of its kind by the Church of Uganda.

Those who can’t walk, remain at home praying for the pilgrims from their communities, others go to the roads to see and wave at these walking pilgrims, and others still offer them food and water, asking them to pray for them and wishing them a joyful journey.

Most pilgrims usually don’t have a lot of money. They carry along with them enough for refreshments during the pilgrimage, upkeep as they await June 3 celebrations and transport fares back home. While at Namugongo, most of them usually stay at the shrine premises, others in some schools and parish premises after prior arrangement and other more affluent ones at hotels nearby.

However, there are still many who question the significance of walking the arduous long distances to Namugongo. Some people have died due to exhaustion and accidents, prompting authorities to demand that all walkers first do medical examinations. Nevertheless, people still ignore this and walk at the risk of their lives.

Is there any specific reward that accrues from walking to Namugongo or any other pilgrimage? Is it necessary to hurt in the process of prayer? Should the church encourage people to put their lives and health at risk for such strenuous activity even when the Bible says God’s blessings are by grace?

Origin of pilgrimages

According to the Catholic Encyclopaedia, the idea of a pilgrimage has been traced back to the primitive beliefs that gods had limited jurisdiction over geographical precincts. For example, the river gods had no power over those who kept away from the river. And mountain gods couldn’t help in plains.

Pilgrims to Namugongo walk with the cross in Mabira Forest. Photo by Emmanuel Balukusa

When people started moving from their localities and facing new problems, they would make pilgrimages back to the sites of their gods to renew their favour. For example, if a mountainous tribe found itself in the lowlands and was in need of divine help, strong men would be chosen to make a pilgrimage back to the hills to petition their gods.

Later pilgrimages became the norm. The Egyptians journeyed to Sekket's shrine at Bubastis or to Ammon's oracle at Thebes; the Greeks sought counsel from Apollo at Delphi and cures from Asclepius at Epidaurus; the Mexicans gathered at the huge temple of Quetzal; the Peruvians massed in sun-worship at Cuzco and the Bolivians in Titicaca.

By the time Christianity spread across Europe, pilgrimages had taken on varied traditions. They were also made to the places where the gods or heroes were born or wrought some great action or died, or to the shrines where the deity had already signified it to be his pleasure to work wonders.

For example, Christians in Europe found it irresistible to make pilgrimages to visit Israel and the Holy Land, as they referred to it. And it was a daunting task. It took several months, cost a great deal of money, and entailed considerable danger.

The roads were full of gangsters ready to rob and kill. And there were difficult geographical features to transcend. Many pilgrims were injured or killed. Still, when that mission was accomplished and the pilgrim was safely back home, he knew that he had received many graces from the community.

Buddhists and Muslims actually inculcated this method of devotion among the pillars of their faith. Followers are supposed to make pilgrimages, at least once in their lifetimes, to Kapilavastu where Gaukama Gaukama Buddha began his life or Mecca, the holiest site in Islam.

In Christianity, early converts expressed devotion by making pilgrimages to shrines, especially those which venerated martyrs. Their heroic brevity was considered a triumph and assumed to impart rejuvenation, blessings and remission of sin and weaknesses. Accordingly, it came to be looked upon as a purifying act to visit the shrines of the martyrs and, above all, the places where Christ himself had set the supreme example of commitment, sealed with blood.

The earliest recorded evidence of early pilgrimages to Jerusalem by non-Jews is in AD333; the Bordeaux Pilgrimage. It was the first to have left detailed accounts of the route, the peoples who lived along that route, and the sites mentioned in the Gospels.

Christian pilgrimages eventually gained universal recognition as acts of faith. According to Historians, wars were fought to insure the safety of pilgrims, crusades were begun in their defence and pilgrims everywhere were granted free passage and access even in times of war.

Are pilgrims Biblical?

In the Old Testament, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments, he told the Jewish people that the Lord wanted them to appear before Him three times a year. Later, King David, after capturing the city of Jerusalem from the Jebusites, referred to this instruction to decree that every Israelite must visit Jerusalem at least once a year.

So, Jews would visit the temple of Jerusalem during at least one of the three annual festivals; the Passover (in remembrance of their deliverance from Egypt), the Shavuot (in commemoration of the Lord’s giving the Law to Moses at Mt Sinai), and the Sukkoth (recalling the temporary shelters used by the Israelites who fled from Egypt). The book of Psalms has many songs that were sung by Israelites as they made their pilgrimages up to Jerusalem.

Jesus himself participated in pilgrimages as a child with his family to Jerusalem and once got lost while there at 12 years. At his death, Jesus and his apostles had made their Passover pilgrimage to Jerusalem when Jesus was arrested. 

In all religions, pilgrimages are associated with venerated sacred destinations, done out of devotion to gain divine grace, petition for a special blessing or favour, search for ultimate penance and salvation, honour God, and experience communion with God.

Pilgrimage to Namugongo

According to the My Uganda website, the first recorded organized pilgrimage to Namugongo was in 1920 when Fr. Stephen Walters, a Mill Hill Missionary Priest, organized a walk from Nsambya to Namugongo just after the martyrs had been beatified. The Dutch priest celebrated mass at the spot where Charles Lwanga was martyred. He erected a cross at this spot, which marked the beginning of organized walking pilgrimages to Namugongo.

A group of pilgrims from Ntungamo district in Mbarara Archdiocese trekking to Namugongo.

Today, Namugongo is the most visited pilgrimage site in Uganda. The biggest celebrities to honour the place include three popes; Pope Francis on November 28, 2016, Pope John Paul II (now Saint) on February 07, 1993, and Pope Paul VI on August 2, 1969. June 3 pilgrims from different countries include Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, Nigeria, DR Congo, Burundi and South Sudan.  Others come from Italy, the US, Canada, Mexico and India.

Namugongo pilgrimage has been increasing in numbers over time. In 2015, the Uganda Tourism Chief Executive Officer, Stephen Asiimwe, announced a record two million people from around the world. He said police used balloons fitted with cameras to map the population density around the shrine and made calculations on the number of people per square meter.

The previous year, in 2014, police estimated the number at 1.5 million. In 2016, organisers lost count because of the intricate nature of that pilgrimage. Pope Francis visited the place on his first-ever visit to Africa.

In 2017, organizers say they received over 2.5 million people. Pilgrims who arrived late were locked out of the Catholic shrine after it filled up to capacity.

Priests explain

Christian pilgrimage can be summarized in the words of Pope Benedict XVI: “To go on pilgrimage is not simply to visit a place to admire its treasures of nature, art or history. It really means to step out of ourselves in order to encounter God where he has revealed himself, where his grace has shone with particular splendour and produced rich fruits of conversion and holiness among those who believe.”

Fr Joseph Mukasa Muwonge, the promoter of the devotion to the Uganda martyrs in Kampala Archdiocese, describes pilgrimages as journeys of faith.

“Some of these Martyrs like Matia Mulumba and his colleague used to walk a long distance from Mityana to Nalukolongo to study the word of God. They would later walk back to Mityana to take this information to others,” he said. 

However, Muwonge explained, the most important element of Christian pilgrimage is voluntarism.

“It is everyone’s choice; the church does not force anyone to make a pilgrimage. And those who can’t are not necessarily bad or devoid of God’s grace. Just as the choice of these Christians to die for their faith was a personal decision,” he said.

Muwonge explained that the walk is embraced as part of prayer. Pilgrims walk singing, reciting prayers, especially the rosary and remaining in communion with God. They deny themselves comfort. It is a product of effort and deprivation, he said.

Msgr John Baptist Ssebayigga, Parish Priest of Bwaise, equated walking as a personal sacrifice to witness faith and solidarity as a Church.