My grandpa survived martyrdom â€"â€" Nkoyooyo
Jun 03, 2004
“They were tied up in bundles. A heap of firewood was put on the executor’s altar as they looked on helplessly. The possibility of escaping death at that moment was as hard as a camel passing through the eye of a needle.â€
By Arthur Baguma
“They were tied up in bundles. A heap of firewood was put on the executor’s altar as they looked on helplessly. The possibility of escaping death at that moment was as hard as a camel passing through the eye of a needle.â€
“Suddenly, his name was called out. ‘Kagiri Kagiri, the king has sent for you.’†only these words saved him and consequently made it possible for the former Church of Uganda Archbishop, Mpalanyi Nkoyooyo to come into this world as Eriya Kagiri’s grandson.
To the Nkoyooyo family, June 3 is not only a day to commemorate the Uganda martyrs. They also recall the miraculous escape of their grandfather from Kabaka Mwanga’s Namugongo furnaces in 1886, halting what would have been the cessation of a lineage.
“Mwana wange singa siriwo. Kyali kisa kya katonda (My son I wouldn’t be living today. It was God’s mercy),†says Nkoyooyo.
Dressed in a white chequered shirt, black trousers and matching pair of sneakers, Nkoyooyo narrates how his grandfather survived the execution.
Before the king could pardon Kagiri, he asked him: “tell me what convinced you to defy me?â€
“I learnt about Jesus and found him attractive. His religion appealed to me and I was pleased to learn more about it and indeed to join it,†Kagiri replied.
The king then said: “I have forgiven you because of your faithfulness. all the time you have lived in the palace you did a good job of looking after my wives. But I am expelling you from the palace, go into the field and tend to my lands.â€
Occasionally staring at the roof as he tries to reminisce the story of his grandfather’s miraculous survival, Nkoyooyo seems uncomfortable. his facial expression changes. Silence follows as he seems to be in deep thought.
“I don’t want to imagine what would have happened,†he eventually proceeds.
“My grandfather was a muwereza (page) in the kings palace. He was the caretaker of the king’s wives, but when the missionaries came, he joined them and his colleagues,†he says.
“Local chiefs were always on the look out for honest and talented young men that would be sent into the palace for various duties. The duties were assigned according to those traditionally allocated to various clans, but in some cases this was based on individual merit, like in the case of my grandfather. That is how he ended up in the palace,†recalls Nkoyooyo.
On the fateful day, Kagiri and his colleagues left the palace to attend missionary studies, while Kabaka Mwanga had gone to hunt for hippopotamuses. Mwanga had taken a boat to hunt but for the whole day all he could get was a bird. By the time he left the lakeshore at Munyonyo, he was in a combative mood. Matters became worse when his gun fell in the lake. When he returned home, his favourite servants were not there to receive him.
Mwanga, the man who wielded enormous powers at the palace immediately passed a verdict after summoning those responsible for recruiting abawereza: “You gave me these children but they have rebelled against me. I am going to kill them.â€
“Kill them and we shall give you others,†they told the king.
Heavily guarded by abambowa (Buganda palace soldiers), the following day they (abawereza) were paraded in the palace before being forced to walk to the execution scene in Namugongo. In a single file they trudged through narrow paths, past thick swamps and forests, which covered what is today’s Kampala city.
Despite repeated pleas, they refused to denounce their faith, a decision that angered Mwanga so much that he ordered for their immediate execution.
“As they were led to the place of the execution, Eriya and those who never lived to tell the story begun questioning their decision and its implications. But they all chose to remain faithful to their lord Jesus Christ and face the consequences,†Nkoyooyo.
As they approached Namugongo, just one kilometre from the etambiro (executioners altar), one of them could no longer move. A palace soldier struck him with a club, he fell and was chopped into pieces. It dawned on the rest that death was coming sooner than later.
The soldiers whipped the servants and hurled insults at them. The order for their death was unquestionable –– it was from above. The issue was the timing. “Get there and do the job.â€
Just seconds before the executioner’s axe fell, something miraculous happened. Like a person waking up from a nightmare, Eriya opened his eyes wide open as a soldier who had whipped him over a distance of three hours walked towards him and started cutting the ropes entangled all over his body.
The king had ordered for his return to the palace moments before the mission. “A grim light of hope started glowing in my heart. A miracle had happened that released me from the jaws of death,†Eriya told his son years later.
This miraculous release was to see him marry and bring into this world Erisa Wamala Nkoyooyo in 1895 who fathered the retired Archbishop of the Church of Uganda Livingstone Mpalanyi Nkoyooyo.
“Your grandfather was a no nonsense man when it came to looking after the kabaka’s wives,†Nkoyooyo recollects what the late Ham Mukasa’s family members told him about his grandfather.
Ham Mukasa (RIP) was among the four people who survived the execution. According to Erisa Nkoyooyo, his father was a man of striking appearance and unique talent.
Kagiri was over six feet tall with a handsome athletic build that many of his descendants inherited.
He had a broad chest and general appearance of strength and was christened musigula, an equivalent of a bulldozer. He tackled heavy physical tasks with ease and commanded respect just by his appearance.
During his stay at the palace, Eriya excelled in his duties and won the respect of the king.
By the time of his expulsion from the palace, he was in his thirties.
He was efficient at his work, very popular and morally upright. The king honoured him for his outstanding performance and this was what saved him from death.
Although Eriya was sent out of the palace, the king gave him great honours. He was given a position of considerable responsibility as the chief. The king gave him a gift of eight square miles of land in Matale Kyaggwe. Of these, he gave some to his brothers and kept five for himself and his family.
Later, his son Erisa Nkoyooyo donated 100 acres of it to the Buganda government. And on it stand Nkoyooyo boarding primary and secondary schools, off the Kampala Jinja highway near Lugazi.
Eriya Kagiri Musigula was born in 1840 and died in 1945 when Livingstone Mpalanyi Nkoyooyo was only seven years old. He was son of Kyajja Ssugu.
From a humble background, Nkoyooyo started working as a mechanic and rose through the ranks to become Archbishop of the Church of Uganda. In his career, he has worked for charity and humanity to levels few have reached.
However, Mwanga’s decision to pardon his grandfather from being executed, has seen him live and achieve this.
Eriya’s story was told by his son Erisa Nkoyooyo, who passed on the information to his children. Elders in Buganda who Nkoyooyo talked to and his brother Ngobya who was a book writer decades ago, were sources too.
“They were tied up in bundles. A heap of firewood was put on the executor’s altar as they looked on helplessly. The possibility of escaping death at that moment was as hard as a camel passing through the eye of a needle.â€
“Suddenly, his name was called out. ‘Kagiri Kagiri, the king has sent for you.’†only these words saved him and consequently made it possible for the former Church of Uganda Archbishop, Mpalanyi Nkoyooyo to come into this world as Eriya Kagiri’s grandson.
To the Nkoyooyo family, June 3 is not only a day to commemorate the Uganda martyrs. They also recall the miraculous escape of their grandfather from Kabaka Mwanga’s Namugongo furnaces in 1886, halting what would have been the cessation of a lineage.
“Mwana wange singa siriwo. Kyali kisa kya katonda (My son I wouldn’t be living today. It was God’s mercy),†says Nkoyooyo.
Dressed in a white chequered shirt, black trousers and matching pair of sneakers, Nkoyooyo narrates how his grandfather survived the execution.
Before the king could pardon Kagiri, he asked him: “tell me what convinced you to defy me?â€
“I learnt about Jesus and found him attractive. His religion appealed to me and I was pleased to learn more about it and indeed to join it,†Kagiri replied.
The king then said: “I have forgiven you because of your faithfulness. all the time you have lived in the palace you did a good job of looking after my wives. But I am expelling you from the palace, go into the field and tend to my lands.â€
Occasionally staring at the roof as he tries to reminisce the story of his grandfather’s miraculous survival, Nkoyooyo seems uncomfortable. his facial expression changes. Silence follows as he seems to be in deep thought.
“I don’t want to imagine what would have happened,†he eventually proceeds.
“My grandfather was a muwereza (page) in the kings palace. He was the caretaker of the king’s wives, but when the missionaries came, he joined them and his colleagues,†he says.
“Local chiefs were always on the look out for honest and talented young men that would be sent into the palace for various duties. The duties were assigned according to those traditionally allocated to various clans, but in some cases this was based on individual merit, like in the case of my grandfather. That is how he ended up in the palace,†recalls Nkoyooyo.
On the fateful day, Kagiri and his colleagues left the palace to attend missionary studies, while Kabaka Mwanga had gone to hunt for hippopotamuses. Mwanga had taken a boat to hunt but for the whole day all he could get was a bird. By the time he left the lakeshore at Munyonyo, he was in a combative mood. Matters became worse when his gun fell in the lake. When he returned home, his favourite servants were not there to receive him.
Mwanga, the man who wielded enormous powers at the palace immediately passed a verdict after summoning those responsible for recruiting abawereza: “You gave me these children but they have rebelled against me. I am going to kill them.â€
“Kill them and we shall give you others,†they told the king.
Heavily guarded by abambowa (Buganda palace soldiers), the following day they (abawereza) were paraded in the palace before being forced to walk to the execution scene in Namugongo. In a single file they trudged through narrow paths, past thick swamps and forests, which covered what is today’s Kampala city.
Despite repeated pleas, they refused to denounce their faith, a decision that angered Mwanga so much that he ordered for their immediate execution.
“As they were led to the place of the execution, Eriya and those who never lived to tell the story begun questioning their decision and its implications. But they all chose to remain faithful to their lord Jesus Christ and face the consequences,†Nkoyooyo.
As they approached Namugongo, just one kilometre from the etambiro (executioners altar), one of them could no longer move. A palace soldier struck him with a club, he fell and was chopped into pieces. It dawned on the rest that death was coming sooner than later.
The soldiers whipped the servants and hurled insults at them. The order for their death was unquestionable –– it was from above. The issue was the timing. “Get there and do the job.â€
Just seconds before the executioner’s axe fell, something miraculous happened. Like a person waking up from a nightmare, Eriya opened his eyes wide open as a soldier who had whipped him over a distance of three hours walked towards him and started cutting the ropes entangled all over his body.
The king had ordered for his return to the palace moments before the mission. “A grim light of hope started glowing in my heart. A miracle had happened that released me from the jaws of death,†Eriya told his son years later.
This miraculous release was to see him marry and bring into this world Erisa Wamala Nkoyooyo in 1895 who fathered the retired Archbishop of the Church of Uganda Livingstone Mpalanyi Nkoyooyo.
“Your grandfather was a no nonsense man when it came to looking after the kabaka’s wives,†Nkoyooyo recollects what the late Ham Mukasa’s family members told him about his grandfather.
Ham Mukasa (RIP) was among the four people who survived the execution. According to Erisa Nkoyooyo, his father was a man of striking appearance and unique talent.
Kagiri was over six feet tall with a handsome athletic build that many of his descendants inherited.
He had a broad chest and general appearance of strength and was christened musigula, an equivalent of a bulldozer. He tackled heavy physical tasks with ease and commanded respect just by his appearance.
During his stay at the palace, Eriya excelled in his duties and won the respect of the king.
By the time of his expulsion from the palace, he was in his thirties.
He was efficient at his work, very popular and morally upright. The king honoured him for his outstanding performance and this was what saved him from death.
Although Eriya was sent out of the palace, the king gave him great honours. He was given a position of considerable responsibility as the chief. The king gave him a gift of eight square miles of land in Matale Kyaggwe. Of these, he gave some to his brothers and kept five for himself and his family.
Later, his son Erisa Nkoyooyo donated 100 acres of it to the Buganda government. And on it stand Nkoyooyo boarding primary and secondary schools, off the Kampala Jinja highway near Lugazi.
Eriya Kagiri Musigula was born in 1840 and died in 1945 when Livingstone Mpalanyi Nkoyooyo was only seven years old. He was son of Kyajja Ssugu.
From a humble background, Nkoyooyo started working as a mechanic and rose through the ranks to become Archbishop of the Church of Uganda. In his career, he has worked for charity and humanity to levels few have reached.
However, Mwanga’s decision to pardon his grandfather from being executed, has seen him live and achieve this.
Eriya’s story was told by his son Erisa Nkoyooyo, who passed on the information to his children. Elders in Buganda who Nkoyooyo talked to and his brother Ngobya who was a book writer decades ago, were sources too.