Muteesa writes to the Queen

Nov 19, 2007

<b>The importance of Muteesa’s letter to Queen Victoria is seen in the following ways:</b><br><br>-I t was the key to present day education <br> and knowledge. <br>- It opened the door to business activities <br> which were initiated by the Imperial <br> British East Africa Co

The importance of Muteesa’s letter to Queen Victoria is seen in the following ways:

-I t was the key to present day education
and knowledge.
- It opened the door to business activities
which were initiated by the Imperial
British East Africa Company (I.B.E.A) and the Arabs.
- The modern company/business manage
ment was introduced.
-Lastly, the teaching of religion- the reli
gion of the living God took root to this
day.

RELIGIOUS DEVELOPMENT
On the 30th June 1877 the Church Missionary Society (C.M.S) the very first Society from the European Countries, Pioneered to come to Uganda. The members first visited Muteesa I’s palace then still at Rubaga being led by Lt. Shergold Smith and Rev. C.T. Wilson.

Later on the 10th November 1878, Alexander Mackay Mr. C.W. Pearson, Dr. R.W. Felkin, and Rev. Litchfield also arrived at the King’s palace at Rubaga.

On the 27th June 1879, the Roman Catholic Missionaries led by Rev. Father Simione Lourdel, popularly called Mapeera by Baganda, together with Brother Arnan and Rev. Father Livihnac Leo arrived at Muteesa’s Palace Rubaga. DoloneI Linant De Bellefonds died in Sudan while taking Muteesa’s letter. The second letter was that which Stanley added together and published in the Press in Britain and America on l5” Nov. 1875.

Stanley asked Ccl. Bellefonds who was returning to France to help him carry Muteesa’s message to Queen Victoria. On the 14th April 1875 Muteesa wrote a letter to Queen Victoria.

Henry Morton Stanley published an impassioned letter back home in England in the Daily telegraph of 15th November 1875 appealing to missionaries to come to Uganda.

Stanley, unaware of the true reasons for Muteesa’s astonishing enthusiasm, told him the simple story of Christianity without any particular doctrine, translated some portions of the Bible, and wrote his famous appeal for a Christian mission to be sent to Buganda. This appeal, taken back through Egypt by de Bellefonds, was published in the Daily Telegraph of 15 November 1875:

I have, indeed undermined Islamism so much here that Muteesa has determined henceforth, until he is better informed, to observe the Christian Sabbath as well as the Muslim Sabbath, and the great captains have unanimously consented to this.

He has further caused the Ten Commandments of Moses to be written on a board for his daily perusal - for Muteesa can read Arabic - as well as the Lord’s Prayer and the golden commandment of our Saviour, ‘Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself’. This is great progress for the few days that I have remained with him, and, though I am no missionary, I shall begin to think I might become one if such success is feasible.

But oh! That some pious, practical missionary would come here! What a field and harvest ripe for the sickle of civilization! Muteesa would give him anything he desired, houses, lands, cattle, ivory, etc! He might call a province his own in one day. It is not the mere preacher, however, that is wanted here. The bishops of Great Britain collected, with all the classic youth of Oxford and Cambridge, would affect nothing by mere talk with the intelligent people of Uganda.

It is the practical Christian tutor, who can tech people of how to become Christians, cure their diseases, construct dwellings, understand and exemplify agriculture, and turn his hand to any thing, like a sailor-this is the man who is wanted. Such a one, if he can be found, would become the saviour of Africa. He must be tied to no church or sect, but profess God and His son and the moral law, and live a blameless Christian, inspired by liberal principles, charity to all men, and devout faith in Heaven. He must belong to no nation in particular, but to the entire white race.

Such a man or men, Muteesa, Emperor of Uganda, Usoga, Unyoro, and Karagwe- an empire 360 geographical miles in length, by 50 in breadth - invites to repair him. He has begged me to tell the white men that, if they will only come to him, he will give them all they want. Now, what is there in all the pagan world a more promising field for a mission than in Uganda ?

Colonel Linant de Bellefonds is my witness that I speak the truth, and I know he will collaborate all I say. The Colonel, though a Frenchman, is a Calvinist, and has become as ardent a well-wisher for the Waganda as I am. Then why further spend needlessly vast sums upon black pagans of Africa who have no example of their own people becoming Christians before them? I speak to the Universities mission at Zanzibar and to the Free Methodists at Mombasa, to the leading philanthropists, and the pious people of England. Here, gentlemen, is your opportunity-embrace it! The people on the shores of the Nyanza call upon you. Obey your own generous instincts, and listen to them; and I assure you that in one year you will have more converts to Christianity than all other missionaries united can number. The population of Muteesa’s kingdom is very dense; I estimate the number of his subjects at 2,000,000. You .need not fear to spend money upon such a mission, as Muteesa I sole ruler, and will repay its cost ten fold with ivory, coffee, otter skins of a very fine quality, or ever in cattle, for the wealth of this country in all these products is immense. The road here is by the Nile, or via Zanzibar, Ugogo, and Unanyembe. The former route, so long as Colonel Gordon governs the countries of the Upper Nile, seems most feasible.

This appeal was met with immediate enthusiasm. Within three days of its publication, the Church Missionary society received an anonymous offer of £5,000 for a mission to the Great Lakes. Smaller donations kept pouring in, followed, on November 29, by a second gift of £5,000. Eight days after the appeal, the committee of the Church Missionary society decided to undertake the Uganda Mission.

Other offers came in to serve in the mission, among them that of Alexander Mackay, who was to play a leading part in the early history of the Ugandan mission.

THE COMING OF THE FIRST BRITISH MISSINAIRES:
The party of five comprised the Rev. C.T Wilson, Mr. T. O’Neill, Dr. John Smith, Mr. James Robertson, and Mr. A.M. Mackay, Lieutenant G. Shergold Smith and two artisans had already sailed.

Mackay, in his farewell speech to the C.M.S. committee, said: “There is one thing which my brethren have not said and which I want to say. I want to remind the committee that within six months, they will probably hear that one of us is dead. Yes; is it at all likely that eight English men should start for Africa and all be alive six months after? One of us at least - it may be I will surely fall before that. But, what I want to say is this: When that news comes, do not be cast down, but send some one else immediately to take the vacant place.”

The party, owing to illness and other inconveniences and difficulties, was delayed on the eastern cost of Africa. It was not until May, 1877 that four members of the party reached Stanley’s old camp on the southern shore of Lake Victoria. There Dr. John Smith died, and Mr. TO’ Neill was left to supervise the construction of a native boat. Lieutenant Shergold Smith and the Rev. Wilson crossed the lake and arrived in Buganda on the 26th June, 1877. They were warmly welcomed by King Muteesa in his Palace at Rubaga on the 30th June, 1877.

The King ordered his Prime Minister, “Katikkiro”, to select a place that would be suitable for a missionary camp in the environs of Rubaga so that the missionaries could not go far among the people.

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