The Uganda Martyrs: the young converts burned at Namugongo in 1886

Every year on 3 June, millions of pilgrims walk to Namugongo, near Kampala. Some travel for weeks on foot from Kenya, Tanzania and beyond. They come to honour young men who were burned alive there in 1886 for refusing to give up their Christian faith. The Uganda Martyrs are among the most venerated figures in African Christianity.

Buganda and Mwanga II

Buganda was a powerful kingdom on the shores of Lake Victoria, ruled by a king called the Kabaka. In the 1870s and 1880s, Anglican and Catholic missionaries arrived, as did Muslim traders. Many converts were young pages and officials at the royal court. Their new faith sometimes led them to refuse orders they considered sinful.

Kabaka Mwanga II, who came to the throne in 1884, grew suspicious of Christians, seeing their loyalty to foreign religions as a threat. He also resented pages who refused his demands.

3 June 1886 and canonisation

In January 1885, three young Anglican converts were killed on Mwanga’s orders. In October that year, the Anglican Bishop James Hannington was killed as he approached Buganda from the east. When Joseph Mukasa Balikuddembe, a senior Catholic at court, protested against Hannington’s killing, he was beheaded in November 1885. In May 1886, Mwanga ordered the arrest of Christian pages. Many were marched to Namugongo, where on 3 June 1886 they were wrapped in reeds and burned alive. Charles Lwanga, a leader among the Catholic pages, was among them.

Accounts describe the martyrs singing and praying as they died. Their courage impressed witnesses. In 1964, Pope Paul VI canonised 22 Catholic martyrs. Anglican martyrs are also commemorated, and an Anglican shrine stands at Namugongo.

Martyrs' Day and the pilgrims

3 June is a public holiday in Uganda. Pilgrims gather at the Catholic and Anglican shrines for services. Rather than stopping Christianity, the martyrdoms were followed by rapid church growth in Uganda. Popes Paul VI, John Paul II and Francis have visited Namugongo. The martyrs included both Catholics and Anglicans, who died together. Some pilgrims walk hundreds of kilometres to Namugongo, praying as they go.

A Catholic basilica now stands at Namugongo, built in the shape of a traditional hut. The martyrs were young, many of them teenagers. Their deaths at Namugongo became the foundation story of one of Africa’s most Christian nations.