Namugongo Shrine

The place came to be called a shrine because of the martyrs that laid down their lives for their Christian faith 128years ago. Located 15km east of Kampala city, the two churches, one catholic and the other Anglican, stand 500m of each other. Every 3^rd June, this suburb becomes a common destination for believers from as far as Tanzania, Kenya and Rwanda with some walking hundreds of kilometres. It`s story began 128years ago when kabaka Mwanga put to death his subjects for following a foreign religion. Namugongo derives its name from the word mugongo which means “the back” because the people who were ordered to be killed by the king were dragged on their backs before they were executed in that location.  
When the Christian missionaries arrived in Buganda, they found a centralized system of government were a hereditary ruler known as the kabaka ruled over everybody and everything in his kingdom. They worshiped small gods like the god of thunder, god of rain, god of the sky and others, and the kabaka was the religious head. Sir Henry Morton Stanley who was the first to arrive in 1875 found this backward. He couldn’t resist but introduce Christianity in Buganda kingdom. He was later joined by Alexander MacKay in 1878 and the white catholic father Lourdel Monpel in 1879. The two Christian groups started spreading the good news with their first target being the royal servants of the king. The then kabaka Muteesa 1 didnt mind having his workers attend catechism however, trouble started brewing for the white fathers when kabaka Muwanga took over the throne after the death of Muteesa 1 in 1884.

namugongo catholic church

Unlike kabaka Muteesa 1, kabaka Muwanga still exercised pagan activities like pray to the small gods. This made his converted servants minimise and lose respect him, which made him furious. He was advised to get rid of the missionaries before his whole kingdom converts to Christianity and turn against him. The kabaka asked all the converts under his rule to denounce Christianity or face death which they refused to do. The king had no choice but to order for the execution of the converted royal servants to act as an example for the rest.

The killings started as early as May 1886. Whoever was found practicing Christianity was hacked or speared to death with the climax of the holocaust taking place in June. On the 2^nd of June, all the servant boys and their converted counterparts were rounded up and subjected to physical and mental torture by the kabaka`s guards. They were forced to cut and gather reeds and on the next day, with their hands tied behind their backs and feet fastened, they were rolled in the reeds and set ablaze. Every 3^rd june, Christians make a pilgrimage to this shrine to ask for blessing and pray to saints. Given its history, it has also become a tourist destination