Mwanga did not kill the Christians merely for their religious beliefs

Jun 04, 2009

EDITOR—I have been thinking about the Uganda Christian ‘martyrs’ executed on June 3, 1886 at Namugongo and its significance to Uganda. I am convinced that the ‘Uganda martyrs’ did not really deserve to be called martyrs.

EDITOR—I have been thinking about the Uganda Christian ‘martyrs’ executed on June 3, 1886 at Namugongo and its significance to Uganda. I am convinced that the ‘Uganda martyrs’ did not really deserve to be called martyrs.

We should examine Kabaka Mwanga’s decision to execute the people in question. The execution of the Christian martyrs was both political and religious. It is the Buganda kingdom that invited the first missionaries who arrived in 1877 and the kingdom benefited tremendously from them, particularly in developmental projects like schools.

So we thank Kabaka Mutesa 1 for his insight to invite these people. Nevertheless, I am still puzzled that we continue to call people ‘martyrs’ due to the fact that they challenged the power structures of the Buganda culture at the time because of their faith. If we are to go by the Muslims who keep challenging the power and social structure of the Western countries because of their faith, then the word ‘martyr’ is not truly applicable to these people.

Muslims or Christians who attempt to do today what these ‘martyrs’ did during Kabaka Mwanga’s reign will suffer the wrath of the law and some will even be branded terrorists. However, we should not forget that those who die in this way in places like the Middle East are still branded ‘martyrs’ by some Islamic factions. Christians were a challenge to Mwanga’s political power.

It is important to realise that the persecution of Christians in Uganda was not the norm. There were relatively few Christians killed for religious reasons compared to the large number of Christian Baganda. So I don’t think Kabaka Mwanga set out to kill Christians.

Thirdly, all of the martyrs were Baganda. The lives and deaths of the ‘martyrs’ were embedded from start to finish in a culture they were familiar with and understood. They were not killed due to a lack of cultural knowledge or for a “foreigner’s mistake”.

A man like Joseph Mukasa was the personal servant of the Kabaka who supervised all his pages. He knew what he was getting himself into by confronting Kabaka Mwanga over the murder of Bishop Hannington. It was a form of treason. To disagree with the Kabaka was not uncommon in Buganda but Mukasa assertively confronting Mwanga was unique.

The Kabakas used to allow passive forms of resistance and they were effective. Lastly, Mwanga chose Namugongo as a spot to execute these people because to die at Namugongo made one an enemy of the Buganda state. Namugongo was an equivalent of England’s “Tower Hill”.

I don’t think we should continue calling the 1886 Namugongo religious people ‘martyrs’ in the sense of the word in relation to the events happening in the world today. However, I am happy to say that Buganda has changed greatly since that time. There is a lot of religious freedom.

Catholics, Protestants, Christians and Muslims can all interact within the kingdom of Buganda without any problem. What Mwanga did is inexcusable but at least we all learnt from it and most importantly we understand why he did it.

Abbey Kibirige Semuwemba,
United Kingdom

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