Persecution,a Church Council and the Shaping of the Church of Uganda,ca. 1884 - 1888

Introduction

In July 1885, the Church Missionary Society (CMS) mission in Uganda created a church council composed of Protestant converts to carry on the church's work if English missionaries were expelled from Buganda. The unprecedented decision resulted from the persecution of Christians ushered in by the enthronement of Mwanga II as Kabaka of Buganda on October 10, 1884. ¹ While he had shown signs of how he planned to rule, shockwaves were sent throughout Buganda when in January 1885, he ordered the killing of Serwanga Noah, Kakumba Mark, and Lugalama Joseph, the latter only twelve years old. ² Further instructions were issued that they were to die by slow-burning, and their bodies displayed in strategic locations in Buganda's capital as a warning to those who planned on emulating them by becoming Christians. When English missionaries realized that persecution was only intensifying, a plan was hatched to transfer the leadership of the work of the mission station to Buganda, and thus was born the church council. ³ We felt this to be a very necessary step, for in case of our being sent away, we wished them to have some organization of their own. ⁴

The CMS' story in Uganda began after Henry Morton Stanley's now famous letter requesting the sending of “practical Christian tutors” to Uganda was published in the Daily Telegraph on November 15, 1875, New Herald on November 29, 1875, and American Citizen on December 18, 1875. Stanley met Muteesa I on April 5 at his court in Nabulagala, Kampala, where he expressed a need for English teachers to teach his subjects how to read and write. ⁵ Two days after its first publication, a person who preferred only to be identified as an “unprofitable servant” donated £5,000 to the CMS in England to launch a mission station in Uganda which came to fruition when Revd. C. T. Wilson and Lieut. Shergold Smith reached Lubaga, Muteesa’s capital, on July 8, 1877. ⁶ On their reception, Smith, who had lost his sight, journaled, “this is our reception. I could not see, so my report is that of ear. The king rose as we entered, and advanced to the edge of his carpet, and shook hands.” The two missionaries were given land and support to set up the mission station, but their experience in was not without challenges, even during Muteesa's reign. ⁷

Cultural barriers, among other challenges, had also stood in the way of the spread of Christianity in Buganda. But the plight of the mission station took a positive turn for good after the performance of the first Protestant baptism in Uganda on March 18, 1882. ⁸ While five people were baptized on the day, many soon turned up, marking the beginning of Christianity’s disruption of Ganda culture, something Baganda traditionalists wanted to avoid. By the end of 1884, the number of baptized Christians had increased to eighty-eight for a missionary team of three – Alexander M. Mackay, Robert P. Ashe, and Philip O'Flaherty. ⁹ One story involved a prominent chief called Sebwato Nicodemus, from southern Buganda, who had many wives but let all of them go (except one) to be baptized before going to become a leading Christian. ¹⁰ And then there was Ddamulira who after believing in witchcraft (Lubare, as it is called in Buganda) all his life requested baptism on his deathbed. ¹¹ Ddamulira was never baptized in time for his death, but his story reached the missionaries providing further justification for the readiness of Baganda for baptism. Both polygamy and witchcraft were big impediments to Baganda embracing Christianity, including Muteesa, who married eighty-seven wives. ¹²

Despite the church taking off the ground, 1884 also marked Muteesa’s death and the beginning of the reign of terror that characterized his son’s first four years. The historian J. A. Rowe describes the period as thus: Christians attached to the Protestant CMS mission or the White Fathers were hunted down, arrested, condemned, and with due formality, put to death. ¹³ In this article, I argue that while the church council was created as an immediate response to persecution, it was equally a visionary decision that fundamentally shaped the foundation of the Church of Uganda. ¹⁴ It brought Protestants closer to one another and united Protestants and Catholics against persecution. The council also marked the beginning of the indigenization of Protestantism in Uganda when Baganda were elected for the first time to lead the church they had become a part of through baptism only recently. The newly elected elders had the authority to lead and preach in the absence of CMS missionaries, even though no ordination of catechists, deacons, or priests had ever occurred in the country. ¹⁵ Women were included in church leadership from the onset when a separate council of six women was constituted. The council also became a leadership development platform that nurtured countless Baganda to fill missional, church, and society leadership roles. In Mullins’ words, this simple church council was the germ of the remarkable organization witnessed many years after its formation. ¹⁶

Unification of the Church

The formation of the church council made Protestants one and united Protestants with Catholics. Ever since the arrival of the White Fathers in 1879, Protestant and Catholic mission stations were not on good terms, which began when Simeon Lourdel, the head of the Catholic mission, and Mackay, the head of the CMS mission, regularly disagreed on theology before Muteesa, his chiefs, and Baganda. Mackay detested Catholicism so much that he could not refrain from displaying animosity, even for a larger Christian cause. ¹⁷ The constant disagreement led Muteesa and many Baganda to wonder why two religious groups believed in one person – Jesus Christ. ¹⁸ In 1882, the Catholic White Fathers withdrew from Buganda, returning when Mwanga was installed. The persecution, however, spared no one, which produced the adverse effect of uniting them. The historian Kasozi argues that when Baganda felt unsafe, they united around religion, leading to the disintegration of the tightly woven clan system that had historically held the kingdom together. ¹⁹ Many of the elected elders quickly concluded that their survival depended on working together regardless of religious background.

With leadership positions came more responsibility to teach and spread the good news to more Baganda who had not heard about it. We Christians must convince others of the faith and aim at their conversion so that they too may know the fullness of God’s salvation. ²⁰ In 1885, O’Flaherty wrote in his journal that a big church built that year quickly became too small for those who wanted to attend church service, and the teachers became few for the increasing number of students in the daily school. Not only did the elders actively lead the instruction of new converts, but they also owned the work of translating Christian reading materials into Luganda, starting with the gospels of Mark and John and parts of the Book of Common Prayers. ²¹ Kitakule Henry Wright, although marked for death and forced to flee, was a leading elder in translation work owing to his competency in Luganda, Swahili, and English. When Christians were exiled in 1888, he, Sematimba Mika, and Sembera joined Mackay, who had been banished to Usambiro (present-day Tanzania) to continue translation work.

The solidarity of Christians did not excite Mwanga, whose resolve to wipe out the new religions in his kingdom only hardened. On October 29, 1885, James Hannington, who was coming to Uganda as the first bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa (including Uganda), was killed in Busoga by Chief Luba on the orders of Mwanga. ²² The following year, Buganda was a blood birth as countless Christians were viciously killed and are to this today commemorated nationally on June 3rd. Joseph Mukasa Balikuddembe, the head of Mwanga's pages and a respected Christian by both mission stations, was also ordered killed for sympathizing with Christians in Mwanga's presence on January 31, 1886. It was not long after Balikuddembe murder before the first members of the church council were killed. According to Ashe (1895), the climax of the persecution was reached when Walukaga Noah, Kizza Freddy Wigram, and Munyagabyanjo Robert and some thirty other Christians were burnt alive on a heap of firewood and inflammable reeds. ²³ But as persecution intensified so did the number of Christians increase.

Indigenization of the Church

The CMS hoped 'the mission will soon, by its exertions and the goodwill of the Baganda, become self-sustaining. ²⁴ It was not anticipated that this objective would be accomplished through persecution, as was happening. Interestingly, Catholics and Protestants had high hopes for the new reign, which explains why Catholics returned to Buganda after Mwanga’s enthronement. ²⁵ Although he had not converted, he was also a student at the CMS mission while young making the Protestants optimistic of his reign. He, however, never pretended even for a day about his dislike of Christianity, even as he created the conditions that marked the beginning of what has become the strongest Anglican province in Africa. ²⁶

While the CMS had been in Uganda for almost eight years by that time, the council's creation is the earliest known instance of Baganda getting involved in the leadership of the Protestant church. The requirements to be considered for selection were being baptized and being a Ugandan, which though excluding missionaries, did not exclude enslaved people in Uganda. Sembera Mackay, one of the first Ugandans to be baptized and one of the elders, was born in Busoga and brought to Buganda as an enslaved person. According to the Church Missionary Intelligencer of February 1891, upon election, Sembera was a leading figure during persecution, exile, and after Christians returned to Buganda. The council was not only diverse in background but also in age. Mukasa Samuel, elected with one dissenting vote, was only eighteen when elected. ²⁷ Like Kitakule, Mukasa also played a big role in translating the Bible and other Christian materials into Luganda.

Realizing that women had been left out of the church's leadership life, following the same rules for the election of men, a separate council of six women was formed. Like men, women are not just objects of the church’s mission but active participants in it. ²⁸ On this council, two women selected were Mwanga’s cousins, proof that Muteesa encouraged his children, even girls, to embrace Christianity. While women have historically been underrepresented in leadership, this was a big step that they built on to this day. These early forms of mobilization were also platforms for the later expansion of women’s roles outside of the home in the professions, church, business, and politics, especially in the post–World War II years. ²⁹

Leadership Development Platform

The council became a leadership development platform for Baganda, who soon took up various leadership positions. Before this, Buganda only looked up to its clan system to produce leaders, which religious groups fundamentally disrupted through the creation of parallel leadership development avenues. While some, like Walukaga, did not survive persecution, those who did became prominent leaders, further proof of the impact of the council on their lives. Sebwato, one of the elders, became a towering figure in the life of the church, ³⁰ leading the construction of the first iteration of St. Paul's Cathedral Namirembe, a historical monument for the Church of Uganda. ³¹ He was also an effective teacher that attracted many to the church through his roles as chief of Buddu and, later, Kyaggwe. Sebwato was also on the list of the first deacons Bishop Alfred R. Tucker ordained on May 28, 1893. ³²

Persecution was halted in 1888 when Mwanga was dethroned by Muslims who, in the same year, drove more than 2,000 Christians out of Buganda, seeking refuge in Ankole. For their return the following year, they had to count on two Christian leaders, one of whom, Kizito Kisingiri Zakaliya, one of the first twelve elders, and Kaggwa Apollo. Kizito simultaneously rose to the position of a priest while at the same time becoming a regent to the young Kabaka Daudi Cwa II. According to the Church Missionary Gleaner of May 1896, Kizito was ordained one of the first six deacons in Uganda on May 28, 1893. Kaggwa, who had begun his career as the leader of a band of teenage ruffians in the service of Mwanga, grew into a highly respected Christian statesman, regent of Buganda for seventeen years and Katikkiro for thirty-seven, recipient of an order of knighthood normally reserved for ambassadors and colonial governors. ³³

The council also developed missional leaders who resolved emerging complex missional challenges and spread the church beyond Buganda while at the same time connecting Buganda to the rest of the world. Sematimba, an inaugural elder, became the first Christian convert to travel to England, where he arrived on November 1, 1892, in the company of Revd. R. H. Walker (Figure 1). ³⁴ In England, he requested more missionaries be sent to Uganda basing his message on Matthew 9: 35-38. In 1895, when the first female missionaries arrived in Uganda, Sematimba was delegated to receive them. ³⁵ While Paulo Bakunga’s story contrasts Sematimba’s, it was as missional. Bakunga was appointed a chief responsible for Muteesa’s tomb when Christians returned from exile. But he immediately quit when he observed that the rituals involved in his new job were inconsistent with his Christian faith. Sematimba and Bakunga were pioneer missional leaders in Buganda who engaged contrasting missional challenges.

OPEN IN VIEWER

Figure 1.

Sematimba Mika with Revd R. H. Walker, under whose care he traveled to England for missional duties as the first Christian from Buganda to ever make such a trip. ³⁶

Inclusion of Women

An attractive church should also be a church of equality, where everyone is respected and heard. ³⁷ No sooner was the church council constituted than a realization of the absence of women in leadership, which was immediately addressed by creating a women's council to work concurrently with the men's as if they were on. In a letter published in the Church Missionary Intelligencer of 1891, Revd E. Cyril Gordon writes, "six women were chosen to look after the things which more naturally could be discussed and arranged by women.” The status of women was not equal to that of men as they could obtain land only through a husband or some other male guardian. ³⁸ Regardless, their inclusion was a step in the right direction, and following this decision, their involvement in the church’s life increased.

Two women elected, only known as Rudia and Kawa, were Mwanga’s cousins making them Bambejja or princesses. As members of the royal clan, they are born leaders that young Baganda aspire to emulate in the same light as the Kabaka. The historian Rowe illustrates that if the Kabaka advocated a new faith, no doubt the chiefs would hasten to conform to the royal wish, regardless of their religious prejudices or lack thereof. ³⁹ The Bambejjas attracted converts by being Christians. In a related event about the involvement of women, Ashe notes in Chronicles of Uganda that Nalumansi, Mwanga's sister who was learning to read with the missionary, often sent them messages about Mwanga’s plans. ⁴⁰ Sarah Nakimu, another member of the women’s council was Kitakule’s wife. She provides evidence of how women supported their husband’s involvement in church activities and their willingness to get involved when called upon to serve. Married women also helped bring their spouses to the faith while praying for them. ⁴¹

To appreciate the significance of the women’s council, we must first understand that not a single female missionary had arrived in Buganda in the eight years of the mission’s existence, making Baganda women unable to see themselves in Protestantism. Bishop Tucker writing much later, agrees when he writes that to compensate for the absence of English women, the wives of such men as Kitakule and Kizito were enlisted as workers among women and girls. ⁴² Catholicism which came to Uganda two years after Protestantism, had, through its theology, found a way women could see themselves in the church’s life through the figure of Mary. The Catholic practice of centering Jesus’ mother in Catholic theology resonated with Ganda customs surrounding the Namasole. ⁴³ Incidentally, Muteesa revered his Namasole, Muganzirwazza, even though she was his stepmother. ⁴⁴ Observing this, Catholics chose the title of the queen mother, Namasole, for the Virgin Mary. ⁴⁵ The connection between Mary and the Namasole gave the White Fathers an advantage countered only by the CMS creating the women’s council.

Conclusion

While the creation of the church council may have done little to stop the persecution and exile soon afterward, it prepared men and women for a much bigger task. In the four years of persecution, as a direct result of the church council, Christians became more united than ever before, which not only helped them continue their work during persecution but provided a teachable moment to the country that multiple faith groups could coexist in the same environment. But despite the challenges that the young church endured, it never ceased to grow that even Mwanga died a baptized Christian who took on the name of Daniel. The Church of Uganda is not only the Anglican Church with the largest ‘market share’ of any province in sub-Saharan Africa (as is widely recognized) but also very likely has a larger population of people who identify with it compared with any other Anglican province in the region. ⁴⁶