The history of the Uganda Christian martyrs is a well-known tale of intrigue and murder. It tells the story of 45 young men, mostly from Buganda’s eminent families, who willingly surrendered their lives for the sake of their religious beliefs.

We are told that they defied their king by refusing to denounce Christianity, a religion that had been newly introduced to Buganda by Catholic and Anglican missionaries.

We are further told that the Kabaka, Mwanga II, construed it as treachery and had them arrested. In all, a total of 45 Christians made the long trip to Namugongo, where they went up in flames on a funeral pier.

But there is another story of martyrdom, equally as inspiring as it is gruesome. Not many people know it. This is the story of the Uganda Muslim martyrs. Ten years before the Christian martyrs, men had made the same long tortuous journey to Namugongo where they were burnt in an inferno on the orders of Kabaka Mutesa I. Their exact number is not known, but some historians have put the number to more than 70.

Events leading to their death begun in 1857 when Kabaka Mutesa I ascended the throne after the death of his father, Kabaka Suna. By the time of Suna’s death, Islam had started taking root in Buganda. It had been introduced by Arabs and Swahili traders from the coast.

Like his father Suna, Mutesa was fascinated by Islam and took great pride in studying the Quran and its teachings. Although the king did not impose the new religion on his subjects, it is said that normally once something took the king’s fancy, all his subjects were naturally expected to adopt it. And so it was with Islam.

Before long, many people started learning the new religion. Reverend Batulimayo Musoke Zzimbe, writes in “Buganda Nne’ Kabaka” that Mutesa was so committed to Islam, he even ordered a mosque to be built at his palace in Kasubi, then known as Nabulagala.

Such was his devotion that five times a day, a Muezzin, would summon the faithful for prayers, led by the king himself.

A brilliant man, Mutesa had by then learnt to read and write Arabic and bestowed upon himself the title of Imam. “He was very well loved by his subjects. Because he was unusually intelligent, his Katikkiro (prime minister) Kayira called him Mutesa which means the one who is wise in council”, writes Sir Apollo Kaggwa, a regent of Kabaka Daudi Chwa.

But just as he was much loved, he was equally loathed, for his cruelty and soon, the new king came to be also known as Mukabya, which means “one who makes others cry”.

History records reveal that Mutesa maintained at least four punishment sites in Buganda where insubordinate subjects would be carted to be punished for real and imagined crimes.

A subject could be killed for something as ‘small” as not properly addressing the Kabaka by his rightful titles. Surprisingly, for one schooled in Islam Mutesa did not completely fulfil all that was required by the Quran.

Katende, a former eminent Buganda judge and current leader of the Olugave clan writes in one of his unpublished memoirs that the king continued to eat meat from animals slaughtered by non Muslims. He also refused to be circumcised, on the advice of his powerful chief administrative officer, Katikkiro Mukasa.

Mukasa, a former Saaza chief, was renowned for his cruelty and was said to exert much influence over the king. J.F. Faupel writes in the “African Holocaust”, Mukasa contrived to render his position almost unassailable by means of a blood pact with Mutesa, which made him both blood brother to the reigning monarch and ‘father’ to his future successor”.

Katende writes further that Mukasa was afraid that if the king accepts to be circumcised, he would compel the rest of the Muslim subjects including him to do likewise.

In those days, circumcision was carried out using sharpened reeds. It was a long and slow painful surgical procedure that would sometimes last a whole day. Back then there was no anaesthesia to dull the pain, as it is today. It is not surprising therefore that the katikkiro was fiercely opposed to circumcision.

Katende writes that Mukasa sought audience with the king and told him that Buganda traditional royal custom forbade the king to shed his blood. The king, therefore, could not be circumcised, as demanded by Islamic law.

This meant that religious observances that had been led by the king under a more easygoing Muslim regime, including the slaughter of animals could no longer be accepted as being carried out by a true Muslim.

At about this time, a group of Muslim fundamentalists from Egypt visited the Kabaka’s court at Kasubi. However, whereas they were impressed by the spread of the new religion, they were unhappy at the king’s un-Islamic conduct and reluctance to be circumcised.

The visitors reportedly started criticising the king and very soon, they incited the rest of the king’s subjects to rebel against the Kabaka.

It was not long before the Kabaka’s subjects started challenging him openly about his lifestyle. Where once hundreds would turn up for prayers, only a few would now show up. Most found excuses to be away from the palace while others simply decided to pray on their own.

Mutesa noticed the dwindling number of worshippers and decided to investigate. It is said that one day the Kabaka summoned one of his most loyal servant, nicknamed Muddu Awulila (the obedient servant) to inquire why he was not turning up for prayers.

Muddu Awulila answered: “My Lord, its because we feel you should not lead the prayer because you are not circumcised”. “But I am your King. You are supposed to obey everything I tell you to do”, argued the Kabaka.

“My Lord, our actions are not meant to disobey you, but in this case, we are not looking at you as our king but as a fellow Muslim worshipper”.

Katende writes that Mutesa was so angry at his servant’s casual and almost insolent response. He stayed in a foul mood for the rest of day. Several weeks later, Mutesa held a grand feast to celebrate the opening of a new mosque. Several cows, goats and chicken were slaughtered for the occasion.

It is said several of the Muslim courtiers ate just the food and refused to touch the meat, because uncircumcised Muslims had slaughtered the animals.

Angry, the Kabaka construed it as an act of treason and ordered all those who had refused to eat the meat to be arrested. The group was rounded up and taken to jail in Bukeesa, near Nakulabye where they were confined for four days without food.

On the fourth day, the Kabaka sent them some food and meat. They ate everything except the meat. When the King’s officers inquired why they had not touched the meat, they told them to go back and ask the king to send them a live cow and goat so that they could slaughter it themselves.

The Kabaka had them transferred to another jail in Nansana, hoping they will come to their senses sooner or later. On the fourth day, Mutesa again sent them food and meat. It was the same story. They were then relocated to Bukoto where again they were given a last chance to repent but again, they ate everything else apart from the meat.

When they refused to budge, the Kabaka ordered his chief executioner to kill them. The exact date and month of their martyrdom is not known but it said, they were marched to Namugongo and killed in 1877.

More than 70 martyrs were burnt to death that day. Only three of them; Yusuf Sebakiwa (Elephant clan), Amulane Tuzinde (Mushroom clan) and Musirimu Lwanga escaped the inferno. It is said they died of natural illness, a result of the long trek to Namugongo.

Commemorating the martyrs

While the both the Ugandan Catholic and Anglican churches mark June 3, in pomp and prayer in commemoration of the death of the martyrs, hardly anything is held to remember the Muslims.

It’s only after Idi Amin Dada came to power in 1971, after overthrowing Milton Obote that the history of the Muslim martyrs started to come to light.

It is said that president Amin was typically irked that it’s only the Christians martyrs who had been honoured and ordered a memorial to be erected in recognition of the Muslims as well.

Land was acquired just opposite the present Anglican Church Martyrs, and a foundation was laid for a mosque. A small mosque made of mud and iron sheets was reportedly built at the site, to coincide with the Christian martyrs celebrations that year.

It is said Amin had planned to build a huge mosque later but he was ousted before he realised his dream. In 1979 after the fall of Amin, soldiers of the Obote II regime reportedly occupied the mosque and desecrated it by slaughtering several pigs in it.

The mosque was knocked down and another was built a few meters from the original site. “The mosque has never been officially opened due to various wrangles. We hope it will be opened one day to commemorate our Muslim brothers,” says Sheikh Muhammad Guyidde Kivumbi, the current Imam of the Mosque.

Kivumbi says, the original foundation stone laid by Amin was dug up by mercury prospectors. The stone’s bronze plaque that contained the inscription was stolen too.

“They completely uprooted the stone, hoping to find mercury underneath, but there was nothing,” recalls the Imam. The present mosque is a small affair, seating about 200 worshippers. Over the years however, it has slowly become dilapidated and is a painful eye sore in the surrounding community. When Sunday Monitor visited the site early this week, the paint had noticeably peeled off, leaving some parts of the walls exposed to the harsh elements of weather.

A few old dirty mats lay inside of the mosque carelessly strewn all over the cement floor. But despite its dilapidated state, the mosque is not short of daily worshippers.

The Imam says about twenty or more worshippers come to the mosque to pray, mostly in the evenings. But the numbers increase during the Muslim holy month of Ramathan.

Sheikh Kivumbi says there has not been any special celebrations for the Muslim martyrs since the ouster of Idi Amin, in part because of lack of funding and also because unlike Christians, Muslims do not ordinarily mark such days.

“All we want is for the mosque to be renovated so that it is a fitting memorial to those who died for the sake of Islam”, says Sheikh Kivumbi.

Source : http://www.mail-archive.com/ugandanet@kym.net/msg14166.html

By Sheila C. Kulubya