Relics of Uganda martyrs’ heroism   

It was launched on September 14 at the Uganda Martyrs University, Lubaga Campus in Kampala and closes on October 31. 

Archbishop of Kampala Paul Ssemogerere oversaw the return of the Uganda Martyrs’ relics from Rome on September 9, 2024. 

The exhibition illuminates the lives and the deaths of the first Black saints canonised by the Catholic Church in modern times, along with rarely seen archival documents, photographs, and films from the canonisation ceremony held at the Vatican on October 18, 1964, presided over by Pope Paul VI. 

The historic six-week exhibition is commemorating the 60th anniversary of the Uganda Martyrs’ canonisation. 

Islam was the first foreign religion to arrive in the Buganda Kingdom in 1844, and it quickly gained converts within the Kabaka’s royal court. 

The first Europeans arrived in Buganda in 1862. In 1877, the first Protestant missionaries arrived in Buganda, on the invitation of Kabaka Mutesa I through Henry Morton Stanley. Catholic missionaries from France arrived later in 1879.  

Competition for political influence began, and soon, the foreign religious teachings and values clashed with the beliefs and values of the traditional monarchy. 

Twenty-three Anglican Martyrs together with the 22 Catholics, were killed on the orders of Kabaka Mwanga for disobedience beginning in 1885. 

Read: Martyrs' Day in Uganda an ever growing attraction

Most of the martyrs were pages in the king’s palace. Thirteen of these were burnt to death at Namugongo and nine killed in other different places.

The first Catholic to be martyred on November 15, 1885 was the King’s major domo and Christian leader, Joseph Mukasa Balikuddembe, after he pleaded with the king not to kill Bishop James Hannington, an Anglican missionary who had made an attempt to enter Buganda from the east, then considered to be the backdoor of the kingdom. Balikuddembe was beheaded and burnt at Nakivubo swamp, at the Kampala City centre.

The wave of religious persecution began and, in May 1886, Mwanga, angered at converts’ disobedience, ordered the execution of those who professed Christianity.

The Namugongo killings broke out on May 15, 1886 at Munyonyo, then a royal enclosure near Lake Victoria when King Mwanga condemned Christians to death with the spearing of Denis Ssebuggwawo, the same day as Andrew Kaggwa.

Born in Busoga, Mulumba was enslaved in his youth. By the early 1880s, he had risen to head assistant to the county chief of Ssingo in Buganda. He was baptised in the Catholic Church on Pentecost Sunday in 1882.

Mulumba was martyred in May 1886 at a place in Old Kampala. His executioners cut off his arms and legs, then roasted him alive. Traditional herbs were applied to the wounds to reduce the bleeding. He is said to have died three days later from thirst, “with the name of God on his lips.”

The relics attest to both the martyrs’ agony and heroism. At the Kampala exhibition, there is a cross made of muvule wood, hewn from the tree to which Mulumba was affixed as he was dismembered.

The chains that bound Balikuddembe as he was led to his death are also on show plus a crucifix belonging to Lwanga, the leader of the pages in Mwanga’s court.  

Also on display is the crucifix given to Kizito Omuto, the youngest person slain during the time of persecution, by Lwanga after he was baptised in May 1886. Kizito was burned alive on June 3, 1886 in Namugongo. He is patron saint of children.

There is also the Small Catechism in Luganda and French written in 1881 and used by the pioneer missionaries to teach the first converts. It included an alphabet, the creed, and the Hail Mary.

Father Simeon Lourdel’s report to the Superior General in Algiers about the deaths of the Martyrs at Namugongo dated June 25, 1886 is also available, alongside the banner displayed at St Peter’s Basilica on October 18, 1964. 

This iconographic banner was paraded in St Peter’s Basilica during the service of canonisation of the Martyrs. It displays each martyr with his clan totem, the type of his work, and the manner of his death.

The show includes an 18-minute film featuring sound and video footage from the October 1964 mass where the Uganda Martyrs were canonised at St Peter’s Basilica. 

The exhibition is curated by Dr David Ngendo Tshimba of the Centre of African Studies at Uganda Martyrs University, with assistance of the planning committee co-curators, who included Father Richard Nnyombi of the Missionaries of Africa, Frs Anthony Musuubire and John Vianney Kitoolo of the Archdiocese of Kampala, John Baptist Ssemitego of the Uganda Martyrs’ Guild, and Prof Derek R. Peterson of the University of Michigan, US. 

It has four pieces of memorabilia, 25 rarely seen photographs and artistic impressions and seven “first-class relics.”