Uganda Martyrs Day

Today at a Uganda Martyrs Day commemoration in Kampala, the same satanic spirit of evil that was responsible for the martyrdom of the 22 Catholic and 23 Anglican young men celebrated on this day, attempted another attack on the Body of Christ.

A BBC story quoted a report from the Ugandan Army that there were two armed terrorists connected to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), “an affiliate of the Islamic State (IS)” jihadist group at Munyono Catholic Martyrs Shrine. Thankfully, a Ugandan Army “counter-terrorism unit intercepted and neutralized the two, one of whom was a suicide bomber.” and none of the participants of Martyrs Day were injured.

Observations of Martyrs Day take place all over Uganda, commemorating the courage and faithful witness of these young Christians who refused to renounce Jesus. They were burned at the stake by the Kabaka (King) of Buganda.

Uganda’s Christians have a long track record of standing for their faith in spite of persecution and death. Perhaps partly this is because of the spirit of witness of Bishop James Hannington, who was martyred by the Kabaka’s father, and declared, “Tell the king that I die for Uganda. I have bought this road with my life.”

My friend Sean Nelson, who is Legal Counsel for Global Religious Freedom with Alliance Defending Freedom International, commented regarding today’s attack (showing a clip of the Martyrs Day celebration): “This what the suicide bombers today. . . wanted to stop in Uganda. But no one can stop Christ. Wonderful witness here, and for all time from the Ugandan Martyrs.”

I learned much about the Ugandan martyrs and the Ugandan Church’s legacy of courage when I wrote Girl Soldier: A Story of Hope for Northern Uganda’s Children with former LRA child soldier and friend, Grace Akallo. I am sharing some excerpts here from Chapter 4: “Fire of Martyrdom.”

Central to (the) story is the history of religious faith in Uganda, a struggle between Christianity, Islam, and spiritism that is still going on. . . .

With leg irons and yokes around their necks stringing them together, 32 young captives were forced to walk 37 miles to Namugongo. Early in the trek, one was hacked to death. The next day, another was killed when he could no longer walk because of his swollen neck and feet.

While such brutality is standard operating procedure for the Lord’s Resistance Army, this incident took place one hundred years before Acholi children began to trudge through the bush under the guns of the LRA. . . .These young men were on a death march ordered by Mwanga. He was the kabaka, or king, of Buganda, the largest of Uganda’s traditional kingdoms. . . The captives who were not killed on the way to Namugongo spent seven more days in chains as an enormous pyre was prepared.

On June 3, 1886, they were wrapped and bound in reed mats and laid side by side on the pyre. These former pages to Mwanga were burned alive for daring to refuse to compromise their faith and participate in the king’s debauched lifestyle.

Even in their death, however, these brave young Ugandans thwarted the evil the king intended. They welcomed the privilege of dying as martyrs for Christ (breaking into my narrative here to say how very much this sounds like The 21, the Coptic martyrs and their Ghanian friend who were murdered by ISIS in Libya!). Their attitude bewildered the executioners and soldiers who were ordered to kill them. One of the executioners later remarked that the prisoners acted as if they were going to a wedding and that their executioners were serving at a banquet. . . .

Mwanga and others like him have been responsible for the persecution and death of hundreds of Christians. These crimes pale in comparison to the horrors of Idi Amin Dada, who was president from 1971 to 1979. His regime tortured and killed from one hundred thousand to five hundred thousand (most sources say three hundred thousand) of his own people during his presidency. . . .

These leaders have created martyrs and produced mayhem, destabilizing Uganda economically, politically, and spiritually. It would seem that these human beings have been the instruments of destruction for something beyond themselves that seeks to frustrate God’s will for Africa. . . . God has never abandoned His children to face the trials brought upon Uganda by murderous kings and leaders. The testimony of God’s past faithfulness in Uganda’s history is comforting assurance.

(You can read the rest of this chapter, and the rest of the book, including Grace’s amazing biographical story — she writes her own story and I write about Uganda — in Girl Soldier.)

The spirit of anti-Christ that has caused the martyrdom of Christians through the ages is the same spirit in the Islamist terrorists attempting to blow up Christians on a holy day in Uganda, and in the Fulani slaughtering Christians in Nigeria. Not surprisingly, it is the same spirit in Hamas and Hezbollah, and in the hatred of God’s chosen people, the Jews all over the world. It is, at bottom, a hatred of God and His eternal plan of salvation.

Thank God for the faithfulness of the Ugandan Martyrs, and for martyrs throughout the ages. Jesus calls us all to take up our Cross and follow Him. Not all, like Charles Lwanga and the other Martyrs of Uganda, carry their cross to a fiery death. Not all, like the 21, carry their cross to a blood-drenched seashore. But some, like Dietrich Bonhoeffer who carried his cross to a Nazi prison and a gallows, will carry their cross for others. They will never settle for passivity in the face of persecution.