Lugalama Joseph.
Lugalama Joseph was martyred on January 31, 1885, in Busega, Uganda, making him the first Uganda martyr — with Serwanga Noah and Kakumba Mark. All three were Anglicans.
There is no record of Lugalama’s birth and childhood as he was enslaved in Buganda and had only lived in the African kingdom for barely two years. The date of his baptism is also lost to us due to a great fire that destroyed baptismal records at Nateete, Kampala, during the persecution of Christians in the mid-1880s. He is, however, consistently referred to as Joseph by Ashe, in whose care he was placed up to the time of his death (243), primary sources such as the Church Missionary Gleaner (August 1886), and religious historians like Faupel (334). It is unlikely that he adopted a so-called Christian name without baptism, became referred to by it, and everyone went along with it — considering that he was also about eleven or twelve years old. Lugalama was his surname though Mullins and Mukasa present it as Lugulama (32). Ashe (1889) says he also went by Mugaju (124). In this article, I stick to Lugalama Joseph while referring to him as Lugalama hereafter.
Lugalama was a Munyankole (a member of the Ankole ethnicity in southwestern Uganda) and was brought to Buganda as an enslaved person. He was captured in a raid led by Sebwato Nicodemus, who himself is reported to have had to save him from being killed by another raider which may explain the trust that developed between the two, as we will see shortly. Sebwato was at the time a sub-chief under the Pokino (county chief of Buddu county) of Buganda — the name Buddu itself means slavery. On a caravan, he sent him to Lubaga, the capital, but he was stolen again on arriving. He managed to escape from his captor and somehow found Sebwato again, who this time decided to send him to the Church Missionary Society (CMS) mission station at Nateete, Kampala. Sebwato was in the process of becoming a Christian and had been told to get rid of all his wives (but one) and Lubare (spirits and mediums) to be baptized.
Slaving was one of Buganda’s main economic activities, and kabakas (kings) regularly sanctioned raids to steal people from neighboring territories — particularly young boys and women. While some would be integrated into the Buganda society, others would be sold to Zanzibari-Arabs, who had started coming into Buganda during the reign of Ssuuna II. In an article in the Times, Alexander M. Mackay, an English missionary who arrived in Buganda in 1878, claimed that Buganda sold as many as 2,000 people annually (Mullins and Mukasa 1904, 18–9). Likewise, Philip O’Flaherty, the Irish missionary who spent almost five years in Uganda from March 18, 1881, journaled that Muteesa, the kabaka, had admitted that slavery was a key pillar of Buganda’s economy. Incidentally, Lugalama confided in Ashe that he had a brother enslaved somewhere in Buganda.
Lugalama hesitated about going to the mission station because he had heard stories that bazungus (white people) were cruel than Baganda and might even cut off his ears if he misbehaved — a common practice in Buganda. He, however, had no choice as he was dragged there by Sebwato, who himself called him Mugaju. Ashe, whom he met at Nateete, writes in Two Kings of Uganda, “I remember the first day that he came with his master to our house. He was dressed in ragged bark cloth, but not even rags could make him look common. I was at once struck by his face, so different from the other followers of the chief (125).” Days later, they were buddies living in the same house.
The situation would change when Mwanga became the kabaka of Buganda on October 10, 1884, as, unlike his father, he was incensed by his subjects converting to Christianity. Lugalama — a Muhima stolen from Ankole — became the first victim of his wrath. Like Muteesa I, Mwanga wanted Europeans to stay in Buganda for whatever reason but did not like the spread of their religion in his kingdom. He, therefore, adopted a policy of discouraging his subjects from becoming Christians without ever considering expelling missionaries as an alternative decision. Interestingly, one of his decisions as kabaka was to invite back to Buganda the Catholic French missionaries who had left for northern Tanzania in 1882 after falling out with his father. But no sooner had they returned than persecution broke out.
Though not baptized then, the young Prince Mwanga had been a student of Mackay, the de facto leader of the English missionaries in Uganda, and was friends with Simeon Lourdel, the de facto head of the French mission. According to Faupel, when the French missionaries were leaving Buganda in 1882, Lourdel told Mwanga that he would return to Buganda if he became kabaka, and he did — within the first few months.
The English missionaries who had stayed until the end of Muteesa’s reign noticed within the first few months of Mwanga’s reign that they might have outlived their welcome. Like during his father’s reign, Zanzibari-Arabs stayed close to the kabaka, wielding power over him based on trade relations. But unlike Muteesa, Mwanga was not good at managing the competing interests and intrigue of Arabs, English, and French in Buganda.
On January 31, 1885, barely four months as kabaka, he ordered Lugalama, Kakumba, and Serwanga to be killed by slow burning. Further instructions were issued that their bodies should be dismembered once dead, and parts displayed strategically in the capital as a warning to prospective Christians. The instructions were to be implemented by Mujasi — a name of a person, but which has orthographically evolved to mean soldier in Luganda. Mujasi’s other name was Kapalaga.
Several Christians, including one woman — Sarah Nakimu Nalwanga — were seized by Mujasi Kapalaga on allegations that they were fleeing the country with English missionaries who may have finally decided to leave for the sake of tranquility. The captives were led back to the capital for judgment, followed by a large crowd that taunted and mocked them to call Jesus to see whether he could save them. It is believed that for Nalwanga, they were looking for his husband, Lutamaguzi Henry Wright, but on realizing he had fled, they took his wife because she was holding the gospel of Matthew, also seized as evidence.
In an interesting turn of events, most were freed, including Nalwanga, who not only had a young child but was Mwanga’s relative. Lugalama, Kakumba Mark, and Serwanga Noah were ordered killed, leading to Mpiima-erebera, near a swamp on River Mayanja in Busega, Kampala. As they were led to the swamp, they were again followed by the taunting and mocking crowd while they sang the popular Swahili Christian hymn of the day — killa sifu tunsifu (daily, daily, sing the praises). They remained resolute in their faith, which may explain in part or whole why they were ordered killed while others were freed. The other reason was their close association with English missionaries, as all three were residents of the mission station. Ashe also claimed that Sebwato’s decision to give Lugalama to them did not go well with Katikkiro (prime minister), who questioned missionaries’ right to access newly enslaved people, which may explain his death.
Of the so-called Uganda Martyrs, Lugalama was the youngest.
On October 29, 1885, James Hannington, on the way to Uganda as the first bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa (including Uganda), was martyred in Busoga by Chief Luba, who purportedly was executing Mwanga’s order. Hannington was also coming to Buganda via a forbidden route in Buganda customs. On the fifteenth of the following month, Mukasa Balikuddembe Joseph was beheaded and burnt at Nakivubo, becoming the first Catholic martyred in Uganda. The worst was still yet to come.
Later, Robert Ashe — to whom Lugalama was a dear child — was led to the place he was martyred to pay his respects by Kizza Freddy Wigram (himself martyred), Mujasi’s official guide.
On May 22, 1905, a Muslim eyewitness provided by the Katikkiro Apollo Kaggwa led Alfred R. Tucker (then bishop of Uganda), bishop of Zanzibar who was on a visit, and Rev’d E. Millar to consecrate the scene of Lugalama’s martyrdom. While twenty years had passed, some remains of Uganda’s first martyrs were recovered and verified by the bishop of Zanzibar — who had a doctorate in divinity and medicine. Tucker summed up the event thus: “An interval of twenty years and some sixty thousand souls are numbered today in the Church of Uganda. Verily the seed sown has brought forth its fruit sixty and hundredfold to the glory of God. ‘The blood of martyrs is the seed of the Church.’”
Bibliography
Ashe, Robert P. Two Kings of Uganda. London: Sampson Low, Marston, Searle & Rivington, 1890.
Faupel, John Francis. African Holocaust. New York: P. J. Kenedy, 1962.
Mullins, Joseph Dennis, and Ham Mukasa. The Wonderful Story of Uganda. London: Church Missionary Society, 1904.
