Over 30,000 pilgrims expected at Daudi, Jildo Martyrdom celebrations

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AGAGO - Preparations are in final stages to host over 30,000 pilgrims from across the world, for the celebration of evangelism life of two martyrs in northern Uganda, Daudi Okelo and Jildo Irwa. 

Held every October 20, this year's celebration will also be held at WiPolo Martyrs Shrine, Loi Mutto town council in Agago district.

Bosco Ojara, a secretary to the Wipolo church office said, the main celebrant will be the Rt. Rev. Dominic Eibu, the bishop of Kotido diocese.

Joseph Mukasa, the chairperson of Lai Mutto town council where the catholic shrine is located says, the roads are being upgraded to enable easy movement of visitors and pilgrims as well as other social amenities such as clean water, electricity and security. 

At the spot where Daudi Okelo and Jildo Irwa were dragged out of their hut and killed, is a mausoleum that contains a tomb for the two young martyrs. (Credit: Julius Luwemba)

About the Martyrs

Daudi Okelo 16, and Jildo Irwa 12, were killed in Paimol on October 19, 1918, in their capacity as catechists.

Although their martyrdom happened over 30 years after the first catholic martyr was killed in Buganda, Okelo and Irwa are recognised among the 24 Uganda's catholic martyrs.

Bonded together by a deep friendship of the catechumenate time, they both developed the desire to proclaim and teach Christianity.

Daudi Okelo was born around 1902 in Ogom-Paira, a village in  Kitgum in northern Uganda. 

He received baptism and holy communion on June 6, 1916, when he was about 14 years of age.

Jildo Irwa was born around 1906 in the village of Bar-Kitoba on the Kitgum-Padibe road. He received his first holy communion on the same day as Okelo.

How they joined Catechism

Seminarian James Ojok who is currently stationed in Agago, narrates that  Okello and Irwa worked closely with the church as early as 1912 while serving under Fr. Cesare Gambaretto.

Fr. Gambaretto who was born at San Giovanni  Ilarione, Verona in Italy on July 10, 1888, was ordained in 1912 before embarking on a Mission in Central Africa on November 5, 1914. On March 1, 1915, he joined Fr. Pedrana in the foundation of Kitgum station.

Inside the WiPolo Church which can only accommodate less than 300 faithful. (Credit: Julius Luwemba)

Ojok further narrates that Daudi Okelo had a step-brother who was a catechist in Paimol a station where Fr. Cesare Gambaretto, the (then) head of mission later deployed both sent Okelo and Irwa. 

In some of his writings about Okelo and Irwa's account, Fr. Gambaretto noted that the two catechists showed up at his door, requesting to be sent to Paimol to teach catechism.

"After telling them all the difficulties, the following day they came with their mats and covers and stopped under the veranda in front of my door," Fr. Gambaretto is quoted as saying.

According to his account, Okelo and Irwa were determined to die for preaching the word of God.

"I am not afraid to die. Didn't Jesus die for us? Father fear not, Jesus and Mary are with us," Fr. Gambaretto quotes Okelo as saying.

He adds, "I held back into my room, took catechism booklets and the rosary. I came out and presented them to the two young kneeling on the veranda. I blessed them. We said Hail Mary and they went."

Rev. Brother Daniel Mwanduzi a faithful at WiPolo church says, that while in Paimol, Okelo used to sound the drum to invite the Catechumens for a morning prayer.

"During that time, they used to visit catechumens committed in the work of the fields or in herding custody. At Sunset, they'd sound the drum again and regroup for prayers before reciting a rosary as a climax of the day," he narrates.

Okelo and Irwa Martyrdom

Okelo and Irwa were reportedly loved, esteemed and much appreciated by the entire village yet, just before the dawn of October 19, 1918, they were savagely murdered. 

It was a politically delicate moment particularly, a struggle between the anointed chief of the village Rwot Lakidi Lacamoyi who was deposed and imprisoned by the British before imposing another chief Amet who was not recognised by the people.

The esplanade where the communitarian celebrations take place. (Credit: Julius Luwemba)

Kicamoyi Lakidi, the current chief of the area who is said to be a descendant of the past chiefs said, that after several months of the British detaining the then-chief Lakidi Lacamoyi, brutality was unleashed by the locals against those who were regarded as cronies and proxies of the British. 

"It was in such an upheaval that the two catechists found themselves victims of the situation," he noted.

Okelo was reportedly the first to be speared to death and Irwa, little more than a child, was offered another chance to leave the village. 

He, however, refused saying, "If Okelo had been killed because of what he was teaching, then kill me too because I was teaching the same," Irwa is quoted as saying. 

According to Rev. Mwanduzi, the bodies of the two martyrs remained unburied as the tradition wanted, and only after a few days they were dragged onto a dead anthill nearby.

"In 1926, Monsignor Vignato was able to recover what remained of their relics and moved them into the church of Kitgum," Mwanduzi added.

Early days of Catholicism in Northern Uganda

The earliest contacts began in 1872 when Samuel Baker encamped at Patiko, a location near Gulu. 

The Acholi (like most African communities) were people made up of various clans led by chiefs linked to one another and convinced that they were the owners of such vast lands. 

The British had already penetrated Uganda from the South but had found it very hard to deal with the Acholi tribes of the north.

In 1894, Uganda had been made a British protectorate. However, such an arrangement was not extended to the north until 1911.

By the time the Comboni missionaries arrived in northern Uganda, the British had already started a process of reorganising the northern land.

The catholic missionaries found themselves the fourth force in the fields alongside the British colonial Miri, the clan chiefs being replaced by the British Karan and the Protestant Dini who, in close collaboration with the Miri, were committed to schools teaching general education and religion.

An old road which used to lead to Kitgum currently connects the murder spot of the two martyrs and the chapel. (Credit: Julius Luwemba)

The Comboni missionaries landed at Koba Omach on the shores of Lake Albert, guided by Monsignor Francesco Saverio Gayer, the apostolic vicar of central Africa. They established themselves in Gulu in 1911 and in Kitgum in 1915.

The true initiators of the Mission in Kitgum, Monsignor Antonio Vignato and Fr. Giuseppe Beduschi broke the ground later to be taken up by Fr. Giovanni Battista Pedrana and Fr. Cesare Gambaretto who arrived on March 2, 1915.

Beatification

According to Catholic belief, beatification is a recognition of a dead person's ascension to heaven and can intercede on behalf of individuals who pray in his/her name. 

After a very long lull in 1993, Pope John Paul II visited Gulu from where he launched a hearty appeal to let no memory of the martyrs fall into oblivion. 

On April 23, 2002, the Pope assented to the veneration on the side of the faithful of the two martyrs of Paimol, Daudi and Jildo.

The Beatification took place on October 20, 2002, at St. Peter Square in Rome, during world missionary day. 

A place where their blood was poured, has since become a place of pilgrimage, also considered as holy land.

WiPolo Martyrs Shrine

The project of the shrine in honour of the blessed martyrs of Paimol started in April 2013, owing to the initiative of the archbishop of Gulu His Grace Mgr. John Baptist Odama. 

At the location, there was already a small church, which was far from meeting the need for accommodation of the many pilgrims who gather especially on the recurrence of October 20, every year.

Joseph Mukasa, the chairperson of Lai Mutto town council where the WiPolo shrine is located. (Credit: Julius Luwemba)

The shrine is designed according to the tradition of the universal church in respect of the local style, local tradition and the natural environment.

The general plan includes a few buildings, giving room to the natural green environment in which the structures are inserted, reorganising wide spaces in the green and planting new hedges.

The entrance into the arena of the shrine is made of two simple arcs, supporting each other with a cross. 

The idea is to remember the Christian friendship that united the lives of the two young martyrs, on the cross of Jesus Christ.

The neuralgic point of the shrine, the large esplanade where the communitarian celebrations take place, is also coated with grass and marked by a few concrete steps as if the aisle of the church were in reality nature itself. 

The Church was built in memory of the place of martyrdom. It is kept in its integrity with the addition to its left of a small chapel for the adoration of the blessed sacrament.

The Altar of the Celebrations is the heart of the shrine, consisting of the presbytery with the altar of the celebrations. 

The altar is positioned opposite to the church in the east, thus creating a dialogue between the celebrants and the place of martyrdom, in communion with the assembly of the faithful positioned on the esplanade.

Martyrdom and Tourism

The Uganda Tourism Board (UTB) continues to organise media trips and engagements to the WiPolo shrine as one way of popularising the site as one of the tourism products to spur development in the area and the country at large. 

Kicamoyi Lakidi, the current chief of the area who is said to be a descendant of the chief whom the British had imprisoned, later incited an insurgency that involved the murder of Okelo and Irwa. (Credit: Julius Luwemba)

During the latest media trip to the shrine, Simplicious Gessa, the UTB communications manager highlighted the shrine's high sentimental value and strategic location to the key other tourist attractions in the region such as Kidepo Valley National Park and Pian Upe Wildlife Reserve.

"The shrine is part of a broader plan to revitalise faith-based tourism within this circuit leveraging pilgrimage potential and making it a strategic marketing initiative for the country's tourism sector," Gessa noted. 

This was echoed by Lilly Ajarova, the UTB chief executive officer who noted that developing and popularising such products is one way of increasing Uganda's attractiveness as a preferred tourism destination.

With the government's target of growing the economy ten-fold within 15 years from the current $50b of the gross domestic product (GDP) to $500b by the year 2040, tourism is among the key sectors targeted to achieve this goal. 

According to Ajarova, this will be achieved by increasing the stock and quality of tourism infrastructure as well as developing, conserving and diversifying the tourism products and services such as the WiPolo martyrs shrine.