Uganda celebrates Uganda Martyrs day 2023 in Namugongo
Uganda celebrates Uganda Martyrs day 2023 in Namugongo to commemorate the 45 martyrs executed between 1885 and 1887.
Annually, thousands throng both shrines of Uganda Martyrs Namugongo in commemoration of the Christian Martyrs.
Kabaka Mwanga, the king of Buganda Kingdom ordered the killing of these martyrs that include 23 Catholics and 22 Anglicans for refusing to denounce Christianity.
Thousands travel to one of Africa’s busiest Christian pilgrimage sites from the beginning of May until June 3. Uganda Martyrs Shrine Namugongo attracts the majority of pilgrims and Tourists both local and international and the month of June receiving the highest number of Tourists.
After which international Tourists go on safaris in Uganda National Parks for wildlife game safaris and Gorilla Trekking Tours.
The Anglican shrine’s relatively recent Uganda Martyrs Museum, which welcomed guests in 2015, is now maintaining year-round interest in the tourist site that boosts Kampala City Tours
The museum
The museum was the idea of the late Livingstone Nkoyoyo, archbishop of the Church of Uganda. It is located exactly where it is reported that 25 martyrs were burned to death. These martyrs’ remains were interred here.
Namugongo was historically the site of the horrific execution of key royals, chiefs, and representatives of the Buganda Kingdom who were seen to be disobedient by the ruling class.
The term Namugongo, which roughly translates as “by the back” in the native Luganda language, comes from the practise of Kabaka Mwanga’s executioners, who used to tie and drag victims on their backs along the road until they reached the execution site.
The flesh of the inmates’ backs would literally be torn apart by the dragged along by the time they got here.
“Archbishop Nkoyoyo came up with the concept for the museum in 2013, and work on it officially started in 2014. His grandpa, Eriya Kagiri, was one of the survivors of the killings, therefore he had a special interest in preserving the legacy of the Uganda Martyrs. Because he was the queen’s guard, Kabaka Mwanga pardoned him, according to Brackson Bright, a guide at the historic location for the previous two years.
Bright claims that when Archbishop Nkoyoyo turned 75 in 2013, he knew he was too elderly and could die without recording the true account of the Uganda Martyrs, which he had first heard from his grandfather, an eyewitness, when he was seven years old.
When Pope Francis visited the nation in 2015, he officially opened the museum, giving it much-needed visibility and elevating it to a significant position in Uganda’s religious heritage.
Uganda Martyrs day 2023
In addition to replicas of the prison where victims were held for a few days prior to their execution, the executioners’ command post, the fireplace from which the prisoners were burned, and the torture tree from which prisoners were tortured, the museum also has statues of the executioners and the victims.
Replicas of some of the weapons, including knives and spears, that were used to torture and murder prisoners are also shown in the command post section.
While local and foreign tourists are increasingly visiting the museum, the majority of visitors are students who want to learn about the horrifying persecution of Christians in the past.
Every month, Uganda martyrs shrines welcome 150 local guests and 50 visitors from abroad.
The second semester is typically the busiest for schools in terms of visits, so from May to August, at least 10,000 local and international Tourists visit each month.
The history of the Uganda Martyrs Museum is a sobering account of how politics and religion entwined in the Buganda Kingdom in the 19th century, and how the rulers’ anxieties over the unexpected rise of a new power—the church—inspired the most heinous murders of young men.
Open from Monday through Friday, admission to the museum is Ushs 10,000 ($2.66) for adults and Ushs 5,000 ($1.33) for kids.
Compiled by
World Travel News, Gorilla Trekking Uganda and Gorilla Trekking Rwanda
