Tracing St Andrea Kaggwa's relatives in Kibaale

UGANDA | MARTYRS | ST KAGGWA 

Andreya Kaggwa Muddu-aguma Mugoowa was a Munyoro, who had been captured at an early age and carried off as a slave by Baganda troops raiding the border county of Bugangaizi. 

He was a handsome, well-built boy and when he was presented to Kabaka Mutesa I, he placed him among his royal pages.

It is said that his cheerfulness and kind-heartedness made him a favourite with his fellows. 

Archives at Munyonyo Martyrs Shrine show that he was the one chosen to learn how to play the drums brought to Mutesa by the explorer Henry Morton Stanley when he visited Buganda in 1875. 

He was taught by one Toli, a Muslim Madagascan who had come earlier with the Arabs and was working as a carpenter at the palace. 

Toli also acted as a carpenter for the Catholic missionaries and it is likely that he introduced Kaggwa to them. Kaggwa joined the Catholic catechumenate in June 1880. He was baptised on April 30, 1882 by Pere Simeon Lourdel.

Kaggwa was kabaka’s master drummer and in charge of all the court musicians, including buglers and cymbals-players. 

He was given a plot of land at Natete, where he had built a house. He lived with his wife, Clara Batudde. He was baptized on April 30, 1882. He also converted many others like James Buzabaliawo.

When Mwanga became king, Kaggwa became a great favourite, who often accompanied the king on hunting and boating expeditions. 

When the storm of persecution broke on May 25, 1886, the king was at his Munyonyo palace. His Katikkiro, Mukasa, told him that Kaggwa was the principal Christian instructor of the king’s pages and was the cause of their being unruly. Mwanga first said he could not afford to lose his chief drummer but later allowed Mukasa to fetch Kaggwa.

When Kaggwa was brought, he was interrogated by Mukasa over teaching catechism. Mukasa then ordered the soldiers to kill him and bring his arm as proof. 

The executioners sought to delay matters, hoping the king would send a reprieve at any moment. Kabaka Mwanga indeed sent a message of forgiveness but it arrived too late.

Witnesses said Kaggwa was wearing a bark-cloth over a white loin cloth and holding a small book in his hand when he was killed. He begged the executioners not to strip him naked. 

They threw him down and cut off his arm. His only sound was to cry “My God.” They then beheaded him and cut his body into pieces. He died on the afternoon of Wednesday May 26, 1886.

Christians reverently buried his remains at the spot where he died. Kaggwa is the patron of Catechists, Teachers and Families.   

New Vision traced his relatives in Kibaale, where Andrea Kaggwa is highly revered in many households, schools and churches. His known relative Remigious Bisansa, 96, was said to have passed away in 2014.   

But one of the great grandsons of Kaggwa, Ponsiano Kubalikagira, 65, was alive. He is a former catechist of Bukuumi Catholic Parish, now serving at the new St Andrea Kaahwa's Parish Shrine in Kooki. 

Kaggwa is known as Kaahwa by Banyoro and Batooro. 

“Andrea Kaggwa was my real grandfather, because he was the elder brother of my grandfather Daudi Musoke. Our great-great grandfather, Petero Kaahwa, father to my grandfather Daudi Musoke, had many wives,” he said.  

Kaahwa's mother was Kasemere. She was a mother of Kubalikagira’s grandfather, Musoke. 

Kubalikagira gave New Vision a guided tour of the graveyards, located under a big mango tree, together with his daughter, Maria Andrea Kaahwa Kemigisa. The 5 km journey branches off Kakumiro-Hoima road, and navigates through swamps, banana plantations, gardens and bush thicket. 

"I feel good because I am from the Martyr's roots," he said. “I also become his heir in 1986 when the Catholic Church was preparing to celebrate 100 years of Uganda Martyrs on May 26, 1986."  

He narrated that by then Parish priest of Bukuumi, Fr Joseph Bukya, asked the family members to choose the heir of Saint Kaahwa. They chose him by saying he was also a catechist like Kaahwa. 

"As a clan, we gather at Kitegula near Nkoko-Kakumiro district to celebrate where our jjaaja (Musoke) was buried in 1914 before his remains were exhumed in 1922 and transferred to the main grave yard in Kirinda village,” he said.  

"I was catechist of Bukuumi Parish since 1974, before I worked for eight years as catechist before the training and later in 1982 I went to Mugarike catechist schools for training for six months, and completed in December 1982. Since then, I am catechist. Last year in February (2016) I was transferred from Bukuumi to Kooki.” Kabalikagira narrated. 

Bisansa's home at Kikanda is an unusually quiet village, situated 5 km outside Kakumiro town. It is 15 km from the original home of Kaggwa. Locals refer to him as: District Education Officer. 

He was a former District Education Officer (DEO) for Catholic schools in Mubende district. He passed away on January 23, 2014.

The descendants at villages like Buseesa, Bujuuni, Kakumiro, Kooki and Hoima diocese at large remember Bisansa as easy and friendly. He made everybody feel like that have met him before, they said. 

He spoke English with a polished accent, Runyoro and a little Luganda. His house is filled with photographs and mementos of his travels, achievements and successes. 

This village first got into the spotlight in 2009 when his two brother's sons got ordained as priests at ago.

"He told us that before he died, he wanted his story to be told. He wanted people to know that he was a descendant of Kaggwa. He also mentioned another of Kaggwa's descendant family living in Nyendo-Masaka, where his only daughter Sarah Aliwonya –Omwoyo was," Kabalikagira said.

Bisansa had told people that Baganda captured Andrea Kaahwa and Magdalena Musumika Kasemire during a war with Banyoro and took them to Buganda. 

The two were separated before they reached Lubiri palace; Musumika was taken to Kibibi, Butambala and Kaahwa to the palace. 

Kaahwa was a brother to his mother, their father Petro Kaahwa, has 37 wives. 

Kabalikagira said Kaahwa married a Muganda known as Maria Clara Batudde Nakazibwe, daughter of Kizza of the Nakinsige clan. They later went to Nyendo-Masaka.  

Aliwonya-Mwoyo also got five children; Henry Lule Batulumawo Bulegga, Joseph Ssali, Felista Namuddu and Agnes Nakanjako. 

Bisansa was born in 1918, at Lwengo-Bwansa sub-country in former Mubende district, now Kibale. His parents were Atalazio Kironde and Juliana Rukwirwa. 

He said he did his catechumen school in 1926, with Emmanuel Nsubuga who later becomes Emmanuel Cardinal. 

In 1938, his classmate Emmanuel Nsubuga took him to Bikira Institute for three years before he went to Kisubi for 10 years. Later he went to Kyambogo, before graduating to become a District Education Officer of Catholic schools in Mubende district. After retirement, he went into farming.