‘The Blood of the Uganda Martyrs is the Seed of Our Faith'
On 3 June, Catholics in Uganda celebrate the Feast of the Ugandan Martyrs to commemorate dozens of Christians killed for their faith in Uganda during the 1880s. James Bradshaw describes the shrine dedicated to the Ugandan Martyrs in Namugongo and explains their significance for Christianity in Uganda.
By James Bradshaw
Statues of the Ugandan Martyrs at Namugongo. (Credit: Aid to the Church in Need)
The Basilica of the Uganda Martyrs is one of Africa’s foremost places of pilgrimage, but little known in many parts of the world.
The Basilica of the Uganda Martyrs in Namugongo. (Credit: Aid to the Church in Need)
Situated in Namugongo in the northeast of Kampala, the site has been visited by three popes, starting with Pope Paul VI in 1969, who travelled here five years after canonising the Uganda Martyrs. Pope John Paul II came in 1993, followed by Pope Francis in 2015. The millions of African pilgrims to Namugongo are drawn by the memory of the 45 Catholic and Anglican martyrs who died for their faith between 1885-1887, and who are honoured with a public holiday in Uganda each June.
In the late 19th century, both Christian and Islamic missionaries were beginning to make inroads in the kingdom of Buganda. While King Muteesa I of Buganda was somewhat favourably disposed towards the Christians, his son and heir Mwanga II came under Muslim influence and began a vicious persecution of the Christians in his domain, including young men within his own court who had also angered him by rejecting his sexual advances. Enraged by this, Mwanga ordered that slow and gruesome methods of execution be employed.
At Namugongo, the leader of the converts, St. Charles Lwanga, was slowly burnt alive. Though the fire that consumed him was designed to prolong the suffering, neither he nor his companions could be made to renounce their religion.
A statue of one of the martyrs at Namugongo. (Credit: Aid to the Church in Need)
One of the striking features of the Uganda Martyrs Shrine is how the harsh reality of persecution has been brought home to visiting pilgrims. A large number of sculptures are dotted around the grounds, with each telling the story of a martyr’s execution in visual form.
St. Charles can be seen lying on a bed of logs, and covered with tightly packed wooden sticks as his killers add fuel to the fire which is about to begin. His hands are joined in prayer, and his eyes look heavenward. Another martyr was tied to a post and ripped apart by dogs. One dog attacks his badly torn arm from the rear, while a second is tearing into the defenceless victim’s chest. Others were subjected to even more drawn-out deaths than those who were burned. One of the most gruesome statues is of an axeman who has left the slain Christian’s head partially attached with the first blow.
Close by stands another grisly work of art that shows the man who had his legs and arms hacked off before being left to die. His killer stands over him, sneering, and someone has left a set of rosary beads on the branch which he lies against.
A statue of one of the martyrs at Namugongo. (Credit: Aid to the Church in Need)
Compared to what is outside, the tent-shaped church itself is more conventional with the altar standing above a relic.
Some might ask why this place is so significant, or why it is necessary to focus attention on the horrors of the 1880s. Chilling though the sculptures are, the memory of the Uganda Martyrs and the manner of their slaughter cannot be separated from the reality of modern Uganda, where around 85% of the estimated 45 million people are Christian.
“By now you Africans are missionaries to yourselves,” Pope Paul VI said when visiting Uganda in 1969. This is true, and Uganda produces more than its fair share of missionaries working to spread Christianity in some of the world’s harshest environments, such as the neighbouring country of South Sudan.
It could not have been this way if the Uganda Martyrs had renounced their religion to save themselves such suffering. What the sainted martyrs have won for the Ugandan people would have been beyond their comprehension.
As the sign facing the area where crowds assemble at the Shrine states boldly: ‘The Blood of the Uganda Martyrs is the Seed of Our Faith.’